REACH
A new era in European chemicals management
The new EU chemicals legislation for the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals came into force on June 1, 2007. Called REACH, the legislation requires companies manufacturing or importing products in the European Union (EU) above certain volumes to register the substances and their uses with the newly created European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
From June 2008 to November 2008, companies will be able to pre-register their substances for REACH. Pre-registration will allow companies up to 10 years to complete the full registration process while continuing to market their products. The timing of the full registrations will depend on the volumes and, in some cases, the hazards of the chemical substances. Higher hazard and volume substances must be registered by December 2010, moderate volume substances by June 2013, and low volume substances by June 2018.
At Air Products, we have been preparing for the REACH legislation for some time. Our REACH team has compiled detailed information about the hundreds of products we market in the EU, while reviewing the legislation and ECHA guidance to understand the full impacts of REACH on our businesses.
We plan to pre-register all the substances we make in or import to the EU, and will begin pre-registration with ECHA in June 2008.
We plan to register our products in accordance with the schedule provided by the legislation. At this time we do not plan to withdraw any of our products from the European market and are working with our suppliers to secure our raw material positions. However, there is a possibility that despite our efforts supply conditions can change between now and the long-term registration deadlines of 2013 and 2018, resulting in some products not being registered as currently planned.
If you have a question about Air Products' compliance with REACH, please contact our Product Information Center in the U.S., or the appropriate Customer Service Team in the EU.
For more information about the REACH legislation and guidance documents, please visit the ECHA website. |
