On 20 January 2022, the European Commission launched a public consultation on the revision of the REACH Regulation, planned as part of the “Chemicals Strategy”, one of the components of the European “Green Deal” and its ambition of “Zero Pollution for a toxic-free environment”. On the agenda: the revision of registration requirements (with the inclusion of polymers), the introduction of a Mixture Assessment factor and the concept of essential use, the extension of the generic risk management approach to endocrine disruptors and several other hazard classes… This consultation is open until 15 April 2022.
REACH (Regulation (EC) No.1907/2006) aims to improve the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the intrinsic properties of chemical substances. This is done by the four processes of REACH, namely the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals.
The REACH Regulation places responsibility on industry to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances. Manufacturers and importers are required to gather information on the properties of their chemical substances, which will allow their safe handling, and to register the information in a central database in the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The Regulation also calls for the progressive substitution of the most dangerous chemicals (referred to as “substances of very high concern”) when suitable alternatives have been identified.
The Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability recognised the need for a targeted revision of REACH to achieve its objectives by addressing a number of problems that have been identified. To address the problems identified, a range of possible measures are being considered:
• Revision of the registration requirements, including increased information requirements to enable effective identification of all carcinogenic substances and substances with critical hazard properties (including effects on the nervous …
