EU LEGISLATORS EXTEND THEIR REACH BUT MAY PULL BACK TO ALLOW CERTAIN USES OF CHROME & CADMIUM PIGMENTS

摘要

The world's most comprehensive and stringent legislative programme relating to the safety of chemicals -the European Union's REACH programme - has recently passed several milestones, while other new milestones are looming on the horizon. REACH stands for the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & Restriction of Chemicals. The originating Regulation EC 1907/2006, containing nearly 850 pages of text and tables in the English-language version, was passed by the European Parliament and by the Council of Ministers in mid-December 2006 and it came into force as from 1 June 2007. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA, headquartered in Helsinki) is responsible for the administration of the REACH programme. The ultimate objective is that all companies manufacturing in the EU or importing chemicals into the EU must ensure that every separate chemical substance (in sizeable commercial use) is registered with the ECHA. The law applies not only to chemicals per se that are manufactured or transported, but also to all objects or articles that contain chemical substances. Inevitably, the scope of products covered is extremely wide.