Data silos to data vistas

摘要

More than 3,000 companies submitted a total of over 9,000 REACH registration dossiers by the recent deadline. In order to fulfil the data requirements for registration dossiers, many firms have bought letters of access (LoAs), and the cost of these have made up a hefty proportion of their overall compliance costs. Data provision rules for both existing substances and new chemicals – those not on chemical inventories – are spreading beyond Europe. South Korea’s “K-REACH” law, for example, will require companies to submit hazard data for those chemicals which will need to be registered. In the US, the latest proposals for reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) would, if passed, for the first time require the Environmental Protection Agency to review the safety of all chemicals in active commerce (see page 11). A lack of safety data would be grounds for designating a chemical high-priority – triggering the agency’s authority to require testing. The agency would also have to consider data submitted to “a governmental body in another jurisdiction” – presumably a reference to data generated under the REACH registration process.