REACH - Importance and responsibilities for your company!

R - Registration
E - Evaluation
A - Authorisation of
CH - Chemicals

No EU – regulation was such a sensation in the last years than the new chemical regulation REACH before coming into force!

What is REACH?
REACH is the future European chemical legislation, which replaces some scopes of the currently valid directives and regulations.

To reach an extensive, and for all chemicals/materials¹ classified, protective niveau and also to enable a future preventative health and environment protection, all chemicals/materials (old materials² , new materials³ and accessory materials⁴), which are market in masses of over a ton per year in the EU, shall be registered in a central data base (after registration by the respective manufacturer or importer).

• REACH regulates the exposure to chemical materials, in preparations⁵ and in manufactures⁶ .
• REACH includes all chemical materials, nonrelevant, if they have dangerous properties.

Who has to deal with REACH?
Basically: All companies, which are located in the EU and are concerned with chemicals.

REACH differentiates between:

• Manufacturer (companies, which manufacture chemicals)
• Importers (companies, which import the chemicals in the EU)
• Downstreamed user (company, which uses the chemicals)
• Traders (companies, which merchandise with chemicals)

Each of this group has responsibilities, which have to be followed compulsory to accord the requirements of REACH respectively to receive a permission for the registered medium.

When comes REACH into force?
REACH comes into force on the 1^st of June 2007.
The pre-registration-phase begins 12 months after REACH was coming into force (1^st of June 2008) and ends estimated 6 months later (at the end of 2008).

Following drawing shows this process:

Attention: If the pre-registration-phase is missed the medium may not manufactured or placed on the market until completion of the registration process.
                   Therefore the pre-registration is a necessity for your company!

As future-oriented company some employees of TeLo are trained as REACH-multipliers to consult your company in integration of REACH!

¹ Chemical element and it's compound (natural or manufactured) including stabilising additives and the contamination, developed during manufacturing.
² A medium existing until September 1981.
³ A medium, which was placed on the market after September 1981.
⁴ Media, which didn't exist on the market so far.
⁵ Manufactured mixtures (compound, mixture or dilution) consisting of two or more media (purifying agents, toners, colour, ...).
⁶ Subject, which consists of media and/or preparations and which form is more important for the function than the chem. compound (car, pullover, marker, ...).