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REACh

The European Union (EU) has promulgated a new regulation known as REACh (The Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) that came into force in June 2008. REACh is aimed at providing an efficient chemicals safety management system for the EU and will be administered by the new European Chemicals Agency (ECA) in Helsinki.

REACh applies to the manufacture, import, sales and use of substances either alone, in combination with other chemicals, contained in a product and some articles (depending on their use) within the EU. Unlike past regulations, REACh introduces a shift in responsibilities in that industry is responsible for assessing risks and for demonstrating that substances can be handled safely and without harming the environment.

REACh will be phased in over the next 10 years. The first phase, consisting of simply pre-registering chemicals runs to the end of November. After that, the final registration process takes place between November 2010 and June 2018. Final registration involves organisations, alone or in conjunction with other companies, filing technical information about the chemicals and providing guidance on minimizing health or environmental risk during their use. Priority is dependent on substance volume and the seriousness of the hazard associated with a particular chemical.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is responsible for issuing authorisations for substances of very high concern (SVHC) so that risks are properly controlled in the short term until substitute chemicals can be introduced. This emphasis on substitution of high risk chemicals has key emphasis within REACh and the ECHA.

The Assembly Materials Group within Cookson Electronics fully supports the REACh Initiative and fully intends on complying with it. Teams, staffed with appropriate personnel, have been formed and are already busy working on identifying chemicals in our products that may be impacted by this new regulation.

The initial phase of product, subsequent substance and tonnage identification has been completed. The process of substance and products suppliers intent to pre-register is being progressed. To date some 95 of suppliers have shown their intent to pre-register, this covers 98%of our substances and products purchased, we are therefore confident that we will be able to continue supplying our current product range. The list of pre-registered substances will be available from ECHA, along with their registration numbers, some time in January 2009. This list will be used to confirm registration and if necessary pre-register any substances that have not been notified to the authorities.


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