The Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of chemicals initiative commonly known as REACH are regulations put in place to protect both human life and the environment from harmful chemicals. These are chemicals which are emitted from factories and even the one we use in our day-to-day life, including fertilizers, water treatment chemicals, etc. Either from the recycling of products or manufacturing of new products, in both processes there are chemicals emitted that may affect our environment and our health if they are not properly treated. The body was put in place around 2007 and has been working to date. These regulations apply to both large-scale companies and small companies, even some small businesses you couldn’t imagine could fall under the regulations. The main factor will be whether your company uses specific chemicals in the production and manufacturing of products.
In order to effectively implement some of the regulations, REACH works in hand with other bodies like ECHA (European Chemical Agency). This will ensure the smooth implementation of REACH regulations.
The REACH objectives.
The main objective of REACH is to protect human health and the environment from dangerous and harmful chemicals emitted by the substances we use in our day-to-day activities. However, REACH goals do not stop there, it has the following objective too:
- Manages and assesses the degree of a risk a chemical can pose to its surroundings.
- It provides the user of chemicals with appropriate and sufficient safety information.
- It ensures smooth communication along companies’ supply chain from manufacturers to suppliers of products.
- Ensures that companies and public authorities understand its implementation by providing tools that will guide them.
Who should comply with REACH?
Any company that supplies its product to the EU market is set to comply with the REACH regulations. This is to ensure the products sold in the market are free from substances harmful to both human beings and the environment.
How to comply with reach.
All companies working in the EU should allow collection and reviewing of properties and the harm posed by certain substances. REACH dictates that companies must identify and manage the risks that emerge from the substances that they produce to the EU. This involves a demonstration to ECHA on how they have been able to combat the harm that could affect the end-user. This is in order to determine to reach compliance. ECHA has built the Enviropass REACH compliance to improve the transparency in the implementation of the compliance regulations.
