REACH, Europe’s new chemical legislation, requires all chemicals produced or imported into the European Union at quantities of more than one tonne to be registered.
A dossier must be prepared for each substance which is then sent to ECHA to be checked, before the relevant member state will evaluate whether the substance poses a threat to human health or the environment if deemed necessary.
November 30 was the first deadline for registrations and covered substances produced or imported in quantities of over 1000 tonnes, as well as chemicals suspected to be carcinogenic, reprotoxic or mutagenic, and those potentially toxic for the environment.
To find out more about the next steps in the registration process, CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com spoke to the Director of Registration at ECHA, Christel Musset.
Registration numbers fit expectations
According to Musset, the Agency has received the number of registrations that they originally expected - approximately 25,000.
Commenting on whether she believes some have missed the deadline, she said: “It is very difficult to say if people have missed the deadline, there have been a large number of estimations done on the number of registrations expected …and the numbers have changed over time. But, in the end we have received the same number of dossiers that was estimated back in 2004-5.”
For companies who may have missed this deadline, or for those concerned their suppliers have missed the deadline, Musset said registrations need to be made as quickly as possible, with details of why the deadline was missed.
In theory, if no registration has been made companies must cease production or importation, the enforcement of which will come down to national authorities.
‘Milestone’ for REACH
Musset referred to this deadline as a milestone for REACH saying that for the first time ECHA has collected an enormous amount of data on the registered substances.
“Now we need to exploit this information,” she said.
“The first step is to publish all the non confidential parts of the dossiers on our websites during 2011,” she explained, before adding that the agency had a legal obligation to evaluate 5 per cent of the dossiers before the next deadline.
The next deadlines are in 2013 and 2018, and apply to chemicals produced or imported in quantities of between 100 and 1000 tonnes and those between 1 and 100 tonnes, respectively.
Regarding the next step for companies, Musset was keen to point out that even after successful completion of registration, more information may be requested.
“It is very important for companies to know that their obligations don’t stop now. There is an obligation to update the dossier whenever there is new information. In addition, if there is a compliance check the company may be asked to submit additional information,” she said.