Final REACH Deadline Looms

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has called on chemical companies to begin preparing in earnest for the final wave of Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation & Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), the European Union’s chemical safety legislation, which will come into force on May 31, 2018. This phase of REACH will require substance registration and the submission of associated safety data for all chemicals produced in, or imported into, Europe in volumes of 1 to 100 metric tons per year. Substances produced in volumes of more than 10 metric tons per year will have to be registered with a chemical safety assessment to define the conditions of use under which risks to human health and the environment can be controlled. ECHA is expecting between 25,000 and 50,000 substance registrations, compared with about 3,000 larger-volume substances registered in each of the two earlier phases of REACH in 2010 and 2013. Thus the final REACH registration phase will involve many more companies than the earlier phases and will thereby encompass a large number of small companies.