What is REACH?
REACH stands for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of CHemicals. It is a new European law designed to make companies register the details of chemical chemicals in a newly formed central European database. It affects anyone who produces, trades, processes or consumes any "chemical" including metals and alloys.
Under REACH it is up to EU and EEA manufacturers and importers ("M/I") to prove that their products are safe at all stages of processing and use down the complete lifecycle.
When will this happen?
REACH came into force on 1st June 2007.
After June 2007 the fist important milestone was the Pre-Registration period between June and December 2008. M/I had to pre-register their substance(s) within these 6 months. After that date it will be illegal for a M/I to place a substance on the market without first having registered.
What happens next?
Different deadlines are set depending on tonnage and danger level; the Registration dossier for most metals will have to be completed by December 2010. After the deadline it will be illegal for unregistered suppliers to place chemicals on the market.
Customers or Downstream Users "DU" may inform the M/I about its use(s) of the substance and must then provide sufficient information to prepare the resulting exposure scenarios of the Dossier.
What is the EPMA doing to help its Members?
The EPMA provides following services to its members:
- To follow REACH implementation for all members
- To inform members by means of the regular email News Flash and this REACH section in the EPMA web site, including details of substance based Trade Assocs.
- To liaise with other organisations involved in REACH (Eurometaux, Eurofer, Substance based Organisations).
If you need any further information on REACH, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.