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EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 25 - Page 4

EU ready to start chemicals crackdown: unions give qualified support

FOLLOWING A LONG PERIOD of consultation (see issue 22 page 7) the European Commission has finalised its proposals for new laws on the regulation of chemicals. The proposed regulation would replace over forty existing Directives and Regulations. It is estimated that about 99% of currently used chemicals were discovered before 1981 and have not been adequately tested. At the core of the proposed system is REACH a single, integrated system for Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of CHemicals. REACH would require companies that produce and import chemicals to assess the risks arising from their use and to take the necessary measures to manage any risk they identify. This would reverse the burden of proof from public authorities to industry for ensuring the safety of chemicals on the market.

The registration process would set up a central database managed by a new European chemicals agency which would receive information from the manufacturers on properties, uses and safe ways of handling the chemicals and release 'non-confidential' facts to the public. Certain substances such as polymers would be exempt and the Commission has also reacted to criticism of its previous 'volume-based' approach by making the level of information required proportionate to the risks posed by a substance as well as the amount produced. It is estimated that 80% of the chemicals registered would require no further action.

The evaluation process would have two parts: any proposals involving animal testing using the substance are analysed first as one of the aims of the new law is to reduce animal testing without increasing industry costs. The Commission hopes that the sharing of laboratory data and using alternative sources of information will keep tests to a minimum. Secondly 'where they had justified reasons to suspect that there was a risk to human health or the environment' the agency would evaluate the chemical itself. The outcome of the evaluation could be a request for further information, authorisation or a ban. Authorisation of some substances such as those that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction (CMRs), persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic (PBTs) or very persistent and very bio-accumulative (vPvBs) would only be for specific uses where the Commission felt the risks could be adequately		controlled. The social and economic importance of a substance and the possible use of substitutes would also be taken into account. Mindful of the need not to hamper with bureaucracy an industry worth €452 billion annually (€80 billion in the U.K.) the Commission has tried to balance 'high standards for protection of health and the environment while safeguarding the competitiveness of enterprises and improving the potential for product innovation'. Thus it proposes to concentrate its efforts on the dangerous chemicals mentioned above when used in high volumes while relaxing the rules on registration of substances used in research and requiring only essential safety information when the volume used is less than 10 tonnes per year. In this way the Commission estimates that an 82% saving has been made compared to the pre-consultation proposals and in its present form the new legislation would cost the chemicals industry €2.3 billion over 11 years.
	Commissioner Wallström accepts a petition from groups favouring greater controls on chemicals

Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said: 'I believe that we now have arrived at a proposal that strikes the right balance between maintaining growth and employment in Europe on the one hand and improving health and the environment in Europe on the other'. Trade unions, attempting to strike the same balance as the Commission, were guarded in their reaction. A joint statement by GMB, TGWU, Amicus and USDAW and the Chemical Industries Association welcomed the draft law in principle while requiring changes in some of the detail. More transparency was needed in the mechanism for registering and evaluating chemicals while international co-operation was vital to stop jobs simply being transferred to areas of the world where regulations were laxer. A partnership should be formed between the Commission and all stakeholders in the industry and, with this in mind, both unions and employers 'were therefore disappointed to find that workers and trade unions appear not to have any role within the proposed regime'. Both animal welfare and environmental groups also expressed disappointment with the draft. 'Our concern is that it will be business as usual and companies will just carry on producing dangerous chemicals..This is because the proposals do not define what they mean by "adequate" controls', commented a Greenpeace spokesman. Meanwhile Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström underwent an unusual evaluation herself when her blood was tested for 77 chemicals of the vPvB category which can interfere with the hormone and reproductive systems of humans and animals that are exposed to them. 28 were found including substances used in flame-retardant furniture, insecticides and paint additives. this seems to bear out the assertion of Labour's environment spokesman in the European parliament, David Bowe, that 'Underneath your kitchen sink, products including washing powders, stain removers and detergents contain cocktails of chemicals, the effects of which are largely unknown'. He claimed that nearly 30,000 substances were currently untested.

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