Background

Industrial chemicals have become essential to our modern society, however many chemicals have hazardous properties. They can damage human health, and the environment: they can irritate or corrode, contribute to cancer, mutation of our genes, reproductive problems, allergies or have other negative impacts on human health. It is suspected that some chemicals are contributing to the rising number of health problems in the EU.

Regulation of chemicals at EU level started in 1967, but it took until 1981 for all chemicals used in the EU to be listed on a single register (the European Inventory of Existing Commercial Substances or ‘EINECS’). At that time 100 106 chemicals were reported. but until REACH, there has been little research carried out on their effects on human health, or their impacts on animals and the ecosystem. Basic health and safety information that is publically available was said to be missing for over 90% of the chemicals currently in use.

After 1981, EU law made a distinction between “new substances” – chemicals put on the market after 1981 (around 4000 to date), and the “existing substances” prior to 1981. Companies had to test all ‘new’ chemicals for health and safety and provide the results, and these new chemicals were listed in the European List of Notified Chemical Substances (ELINCS). The EU chemicals legislation from then on required public authorities to identify hazardous chemicals, to prioritise those used in the highest volumes for risk assessment and develop the necessary risk management measures. Under this system, by 2005, only 141 chemicals had been prioritised for further evaluation, 70 had passed the evaluation stage, 57 had obtained the result ‘measures needed’, and 11 were actually regulated. . The complex scheme failed to produce adequate levels of protection for human health and the environment. In addition, rather than encouraging the introduction of new and possibly safer chemicals, it made it easier for industry to continue using existing substances. Regulatory reform was urgently needed, and the development of a new chemicals policybegan in 1998.

More background on the development of the REACH regulation can be found in “REACH: What Happened and Why?”, Greens/EFA 2004