Introduction

Why be concerned?

Supplier progress

Potential impacts

Functional groups

Substance list

Legislation / REACH

FAQs

Related Links

Wash with care

Environmental assessment of laundry detergents

REACH - Activities of enterprises

The role of your company in the supply chain determines your duties and responsibilities

- see ‘Do you fall under REACH?’.

 

For manufacturers and importers, this will be to:

 

· pre-register substances for subsequent full registration during the period 1 June 2008 to 1 December 2008.

 

· register chemical substances in the ECHA register (for substances produced or imported in volumes greater than 1 tonne/year)

 

· provide the appropriate classification and labelling, and notify ECHA

 

· prepare Chemical Safety Reports (for products produced or imported in volumes greater than 10 tonnes/year)

 

· prepare Safety Data Sheets with exposure scenarios if required - see also SDS

 

For distributors/trading enterprises, the key responsibility is to:

· provide customers with the appropriate information - the SDS and the exposure scenarios - and

· collect information from manufacturers or importers about new applications of the chemicals which might necessitate new exposure scenarios.

 

For professional users/downstream users the key responsibility is to:

· ensure that they have the appropriate information and use the chemicals according to the specifications provided in the exposure scenario.

 

The duties and responsibilities of the different players are summarised below:

 

The REACH Regulation:

Do you fall under REACH?

Roles of enterprises

Roles of authorities

Important deadlines

REACH definitions

 

 

 

More information about Support and Guidance is shown below the table

Why?

The purpose of pre-registering is to ensure data sharing and reduce the amount of additional testing. It also allows companies to continue manufacturing and importing their phase-in substances for several years until the registration deadline is reached.

That is why it is important to pre-register.

 

The purpose of registering is to ensure that the manufacturers, or importers, have assessed the potential risks of the intended uses of the chemical substances.

 

A key document in registering is the Chemical Safety Report (CSR) which must show that the intended uses of the chemicals or products fulfil regulatory requirements.

 

Manufacturers must also notify their classification of existing chemicals to ECHA before 1 December 2010 in order to harmonise this classification.

 

See REACH definitions for a more exact description of the terms in bold.

 

 

Support and Guidance

National helpdesks will be established in each Member State to provide advice to industry about their obligations and how to fulfil them under REACH, particularly regarding registration.

 

Guidance for the different tasks can be found on the new ECHA (European Chemicals Agency) website here.

 

Communication with the ECHA

The communication (registration of chemicals ) will be based on a system called IUCLID5. Find IUCLID5 here.

 

A special organisation called REACH-IT will support the ECHA with the necessary tools for evaluating and authorising the submitted substances.

Navigator

On the ECHA website you will also find a system called Navigator which helps industry to determine its obligations under REACH and finds the appropriate guidance about how to fulfil these obligations.

 

Please note that the use of Navigator (in a Navigator session) applies to one specific substance.

 

Find Navigator here.

 

 

ESIS :

ESIS (European chemical Substances Information System), is an IT System developed by the European Chemicals Bureau which provides information about chemicals, relating to:
- EINECS (European Inventory of Existing Commercial chemical Substances),
- ELINCS (European List of Notified Chemical Substances),
- NLP (No-Longer Polymers),
- HPVCs (High Production Volume Chemicals) and LPVCs (Low Production Volume Chemicals), including EU Producers/Importers lists,
- C&L (Classification and Labelling), Risk and Safety Phrases, Danger etc...,
- IUCLID Chemical Data Sheets, IUCLID Export Files, OECD-IUCLID Export Files, EUSES Export Files,
- Priority Lists, Risk Assessment process and tracking system in relation to Council Regulation (EEC) 793/93 also known as Existing Substances Regulation (ESR).

Further Information:
http://ecb.jrc.it/esis/