Law takes aim at dangerous chemicals

EUROPEAN companies that import, manufacturer or use chemicals will have to ensure they are safe.

The Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) directive was finally agreed at talks in Brussels just before midnight on Wednesday. Industry, environmental groups and governments have spent seven years battling over the legislation, which is designed to protect people and the environment.

Most politicians have praised the deal as a breakthrough for consumers and workers, but green activists say it is a dangerous compromise. They say it will allow cancer-causing and hormone-disrupting chemicals to remain in use even when there are safer alternatives.

The rules are expected to be law from April and introduced gradually over the next 11 years. They will force companies for the first time to prove that ingredients in products from shampoo to toys are safe.

Barbara Wynne, IBEC’s European Affairs Executive in Brussels, said all Irish industry, with the possible exception of food and services, will be affected by REACH and should start preparing for it now.

“Companies will have to look at what they are using and consider what the requirements are. It will affect all sizes of companies,” she said.

At first the legislation will only apply to chemicals companies use in quantities greater than ten tonnes a year, and about 3,000 chemicals of high concern, including carcinogens.

Companies will have to prove they are safe, or substitute them with safe alternatives. If none exist, they must present a plan to research and develop them.

Policy and advisory body Forfás estimates this will cost Irish industry about €480 million over the next 11 years.

But the benefits to the economy will be substantial. These will come from increased research, lower costs in dealing with pollution and hazardous waste and an improved reputation, giving products a competitive advantage, according to a Forfás study.

The rules will be less stringent for hormone disruptors as a result of pressure from industry. These can be used even if safer substitutes exist as long as companies show they can control the quantities to safe levels or that socioeconomic benefits outweigh the risk to health and the environment, and no safer alternative exists.

Socioeconomic benefits include the number of jobs that would be lost if a company was forced to stop using these chemicals.

Health, consumer and environmental groups have been highly critical of this, as has the European Environment Commissioner Stavos Dimas.

Jim Murray, director of BEUC, the European-wide consumer body, said REACH was an important step in the right direction, but too much was conceded under pressure from governments and industry.

“Allowing the use of these substances subject to adequate control is bad regulation that will be expensive and almost impossible to enforce in an effective, consistent and coherent way.”

The Irish Government was one of those pushing for regulations that would be less costly to business.