LANDMARK EU CHEMICAL LAW PASSED

[Anonymous]

Landmark EU chemical law passed
The
European Parliament has backed a deal, reached with EU governments, on
wide-ranging legislation to control the use of toxic chemicals in
industry.The law is designed to make firms prove the thousands of
chemicals they use in products from cars to clothes are safe.It comes
after years of wrangling between firms keen to avoid more red tape and
environmentalists seeking to cut the use of hazardous pollutants.EU
nations will have until 2018 to implement the new rules.Safety
standards Reach has been described as the most important piece of EU
legislation for 20 years.

REACH IN NUMBERS
1,000 pages of text
30,000 chemicals to be registered over 11 years
At least one million more animal tests
Billions of euros saved in healthcare costs

It
puts the onus on business rather than public authorities to test
chemicals for safety – including the thousands of chemicals that have
been used for years without proper understanding of their effect on
health or the environment.It is also meant to encourage the replacement
of hazardous chemicals with safer ones, and to spur innovation.However,
environmentalists had always hoped the law would go further than it did
in its final version – and industry groups still say it went too
far.”This deal is an early Christmas present for the chemicals
industry, rewarding it for its intense and underhand lobbying
campaign,” said Green MEP Caroline Lucas.Alain Perroy, director general
of the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) said his members
regretted the “unnecessary requirements” introduced for authorisation
of chemicals.

New agency
Environment
Commissioner Stavros Dimas said it would “increase our knowledge about
chemicals, enhance safety, and spur innovation, while encouraging
substitution of highly dangerous chemicals by safer ones”.Europe’s main
consumer group BEUC said the adoption of the law was not the end of the
story.”What has been agreed must now be implemented properly and we
will actively monitor the situation,” warned BEUC director Jim
Murray.He pointed out that the deal still allows some cancer-causing
substances and other poisonous chemicals to be used in consumer
products, even when safer substances exist, as long as they have been
subject to “adequate” control.”The only adequate form of control for
such substances is substitution when possible,” he said.The system for
registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals (Reach) demands
that firms provide lists of the chemicals they use and specify any
possible risks.A newly-established agency in Finland will oversee the
way the firms assess chemicals for safety.The register will initially
focus on the most toxic chemicals and those produced in the largest
quantity.

Issues unresolved
Manufacturers
will have to come up with plans to replace the most hazardous
chemicals, but they will not be banned outright as environmentalists
had hoped.While the EU said the deal improved the safety standard of
chemicals, green lobbyists were angered by what they saw as the EU
bowing to industry pressure.Conservation body the WWF said the final
text of Reach “was not the complete disaster that it would have been if
the chemical industry lobby had succeeded in all their wrecking
tactics” but said it left a number of substantial problems unsolved.It
also warned that the deal would continue to allow potentially harmful
chemicals into the environment.

‘Right advice’
After
the legislation was passed the UK’s Federation of Small Businesses
(FSB) called on its government to help small firms.”This regulation
will affect small businesses that manufacture or import chemicals in
the EU as well as those using chemical preparations in their industrial
or commercial activities,” it said.It said that the cost of complying
with the new rules would hit small firms “especially hard” because they
were “least able to absorb costs or pass them on to their customers,
unlike larger businesses”.John Holbrow of the FSB added: “Civil
servants must bear in mind the thousands of jobs across the business
spectrum that depend on Reach being implemented well.”With the right
advice small firms can do their bit without being left exposed to
prosecution due to their understandable lack of resources and
specialised knowledge.”And the CBI warned: “An overly bureaucratic
implementation of the regulations could yet undo the benefits of
today’s sensible compromise and make REACH unworkable.” 

[Author]

December 13, 2006 at 1:00 PM