REACH: What Effect Will European Legislation Have on Your Life?

In December 2006, the European Union enacted legislation entitled REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and restriction of CHemicals). It requires industries to gather information on the chemicals they produce or import, and to register that information with a database run by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki.

Furthermore, it will restrict the use of or require substitution for chemicals shown to be harmful. From the website of the European Commission Environment Directorate General: Substances with properties of very high concern will be made subject to authorisation; the Agency will publish a list containing such candidate substances. Applicants will have to demonstrate that risks associated with uses of these substances are adequately controlled or that the socio-economic benefits of their use outweigh the risks. Applicants must also analyse whether there are safer suitable alternative substances or technologies... The Commission may amend or withdraw any authorisation on review if suitable substitutes become available... The restrictions provide a procedure to regulate that the manufacture, placing on the market or use of certain dangerous substances shall be either subject to conditions or prohibited.

The website has a timeline for enactment of the legislation: By 1 June 2008 the Commission will review Annex I (rules for chemical safety reports), Annex IV (substances exempted from registration where sufficient information is known showing that they cause minimal risk because of their intrinsic properties) and Annex V (substances exempted from registration under the pre-REACH legislation) of the REACH Regulation. By 1 December 2008 the Commission will review Annex XIII (criteria for identification of persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic or very persistent and very bio-accumulative substances (PBTs and vPvBs). By 1 June 2012, the Commission will review the scope of the REACH Regulation. This is to avoid overlaps with other relevant Community provisions and the rules concerning the European Chemicals Agency. By 1 June 2013, the Commission will review whether or not substances that have endocrine disrupting properties should still be authorised if a suitable safer alternative exists. By 1 June 2019, the Commission will review whether or not to extend the obligation to submit a Chemical Safety Report (CSR) to CMR substances below 10 tonnes and after twelve years a similar review will consider all substances below 10 tonnes. Furthermore, by 1 June 2019, the Commission will also carry out a review on whether or not to extend the duty to inform consumers about substances in articles to other substances which are not of very high concern but which could still be dangerous or unpleasant (e.g. allergens). The requirement for a reproductive toxicity test for volumes between 10 and 100 t per year (laid down in Annex VIII) will be also reviewed by the same date.

So what does this mean for American consumers and industries? Currently, we are protected by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), passed by Congress in 1976. The act authorizes, but does not require, the EPA to review the risks of a new chemical, require testing if it deems necessary, and regulate its use if it is found to show harmful effects on humans or the environment. The EPA must impose the least burdensome regulations possible. They are allowed to require warning labels if appropriate. However, any chemical already on the market before 1981 was grandfathered in, and is not regulated under this act (that's a total of 62,000 chemicals). I found some well-written descriptions of the TSCA on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) website: and the the Environmental Health Perspectives website:

The US chemical industry (as well as then Secretary of State Colin Powell) lobbied heavily against the passage of REACH out of fear that changing their formulations will be costly. This angered many officials in the European Union and may have backfired, according to Mark Schapiro, in his article for the Nation magazine and in his book Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power. I enjoyed this passage from the Nation article:

Never before has an EU proposal drawn fire from such heavy guns. The US chemical industry, like other American industries, has been discovering that a presence in Brussels is now a must, and has had to learn new ways to exert influence in a governing institution with three chambers, twenty-five countries and twenty national languages, and in which the usual cocktail of campaign contributions, arm-twisting and seduction are neither warmly received nor, in the case of campaign contributions, legal. "We've certainly had to learn a lot about a new parliament, new procedures, new political parties," says Joe Mayhew, senior adviser to the American Chemical Council.

I heard an interview with Mr. Schapiro on the Leonard Lopate show on WNYC. He explained that now that the legislation has passed, many manufacturers will be changing their formulations for the European market, and US consumers may be the accidental beneficiaries. I attended a "modern materials" course for art conservators. An art material manufacturer and a distributer that spoke at the conference said that the law will have a big impact on the formulations of their products available worldwide.

It may also have a negative impact on the products available to US consumers. Since Japan already has stricter regulations that the US, and China has passed stricter regulations that will go into effect next year, the US may become the dumping ground for products that can't be sold in many other countries. Mark Schapiro cites this as an example of the diminishing influence of the United States as the rest of the world moves forward with greener laws and initiatives.