REACH

REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemical substances) is an important new European Union (EU) chemicals legislation that became law on June 1, 2007. The following year, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, officially began operations and now oversees all chemicals regulation/registrations in the EU. The goal of REACH is to safeguard human health, worker safety, and the environment by implementing a more systematic approach to identifying and assessing risks associated with the use of chemicals. The legislation is also designed to encourage innovation and enhance competitiveness in the European Union and the European Economic Area.

The new legislation differs markedly from the previous patchwork of 40 rules and regulations on chemicals in that the responsibility now lies with manufacturers and importers to assess the safety and health risks of their products and provide that information directly to ECHA when they register their products. More importantly, downstream users are also now involved in this system.

Buckman is committed to supporting the goals of REACH and has pre-registered all substances that it currently manufactures or imports into the EU at ≥ 1 ton per year. According to ECHA, pre-registration is the first phase of an 11-year process that will register 30,000 substances. We are fully engaged with our supply chain and downstream users to ensure compliance. Buckman Laboratories is committed to assisting its customers through the REACH process, and has set up a REACH compliance program to handle all customer inquiries about our chemicals as well as provide pertinent information to the European Chemicals Agency.

MORE INFORMATION
http://ec.europa.eu/echa/
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_intro.htm
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/reach/index.htm