Authorities Dealing with REACH

Abstract

REACH establishes a new principle for assessing the risks of chemicals towards humans and the environment: producers and importers of substances bear the main weight of the new substance stewardship. They have to register the substances which are produced or imported with the central EU Chemicals Agency. This includes consideration of uses and possible releases of the chemical throughout the product chain. In addition, producers and importers of chemicals have to ensure that management measures are adequate to control the associated risks over the life-cycle of the chemical. By introducing the 'no data - no market' principle REACH intends to build a dynamic system of growing risk knowledge and risk control for chemicals. In turn, authorities will withdraw from compiling detailed risk assessments and risk reduction strategies. Local, reversible risks and point emission sources will no longer be a topic of expert committees at EU level. During the registration procedure authorities might serve as helpers e.g. by establishing help-desks to support the compilation of the registration dossiers. For the evaluation step of REACH authorities will be able to concentrate on substances and uses of high concern which pose a risk to humans and the environment. Where risks are identified as not adequately controlled and therefore needing regulation at Community level, authorities will propose the respective substances as candidates for authorisation. In addition authorities might suggest restrictions for certain uses. For these legal elements the responsibility still lies with the authorities. Chemicals with persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic properties (PBT-substances) are considered as substances of very high concern and therefore should be subject to authorisation. Producers and importers are required to identify potential PBT-substances in the registration dossiers. Since the responsibility for introducing legal measures remains with the authorities, they also need to implement mechanisms to identify potential candidates during the evaluation procedure.