Chemical industry gets EU boost

IRELAND succeeded in its drive to make new chemicals legislation more industry-friendly at a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels yesterday.

The REACH legislation will ensure most chemicals in everyday use from shampoos and air fresheners to those in cars and computers are tested for their safety to health and the environment.

Junior Minister, Tony Killeen, warned that investment in the chemical and IT industry might be jeopardised by the insistence that hazardous substances be replaced by safer ones.

“We have serious concerns about authorisation. It creates uncertainty for industry”, he told the meeting, adding that a voluntary commitment by industry would be preferable.

Ireland was specifically concerned about the banning of carcinogenic and other chemicals used in the IT industry which it said were carefully controlled in relation to workers’ health but were essential to the manufacturing process.

The Ministers agreed that rather than insisting on these chemicals having to be re-authorised every five years to force companies to find safer substitutes, companies will have to prove that they are being adequately controlled and that a substitute is not readily available.

UNICE, the employers organisation to which IBEC belongs, described this as unworkable. Mr Killeen successfully objected to companies having to share research data on the basis that it might affect company sensitive information.

Ireland’s efforts to further water down the legislation, were supported only by Poland and at the end neither objected to the final draft agreed by the Ministers.

Director of the European consumer group BEUC, Jim Murray, said they were extremely disappointed by the outcome. “This further waters down the REACH proposal by weakening the registration of chemicals, the substitution principle and foreseeing even less information available for consumers”.