Chemicals, EU REACH Regulation and Bioethics
REACH: On Monday December 18, 2006, the European Union (E.U.) President, signed the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) bill into law. When it comes into effect in June 2007, the new legislation, known as REACH, will ban some of the most dangerous chemicals used in the E.U. and will require registration for 30,000 other substances. The new law will improve human health and protect the environment, while promoting business competition and product safety. REACH replaces over 40 different rules governing the use of chemicals in the E.U. Previously, companies had been allowed to sell almost any chemical in E.U. member states without being required to provide detailed health and safety information. The new law does away with the old system and places the burden of proving a product is safe on the chemical manufacturers themselves. A registration agency to be established in Finland will have the authority to ban chemicals presenting significant health threats. The law will require that companies replace high-risk substances with safer alternatives, or submit a plan to develop an alternative if none exists. Under REACH, companies will be obligated to register their chemical inventory in a centralized, public database before placing chemical-based products on the European market.
Although REACH does reflect a compromise between health and economic concerns, the chemicals industry is critical of the law, voicing concern that the product registration requirements will cost between $3.7 and $6.89 billion over the next four years. Thousands of chemicals will face automatic testing because they pose a health or safety risk.
what type of companies will this affect?