With deadlines for REACH looming, Churngold Remediation reviews the legislation and what action needs to be taken.

REACH, which deals with the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances, is an EU regulation that was introduced on 1 June 2007. The clean up of contaminated land requires the purchase, use and storage of large quantities of chemicals, so it is a piece of legislation that the land remediation sector needs to carefully consider in the context of their day to day operations.

Any company manufacturing or importing a substance on its own, in a preparation (mixture of substances), or in articles (finished manufactured goods) at or above one tonne per year may have to register it. Therefore, the first stage of complying to REACH is to undertake an inventory of every chemical that comes into, is part of, or goes out of the business.

The company must then submit a dossier to the new European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), based in Helsinki, providing details of the substance’s properties, other relevant information about risks and how these risks can be managed. Businesses will not be able to market or use the substance, or article containing a substance, within the EU, unless it has been registered.


Timeline of key dates:

1 December 2008 - Registration for existing substances (that have not been pre-registered) starts.

1 January 2009 - List of pre-registered substances published and Substance Information Exchange Fora (SIEFs) are formed.

1 June 2009 - First recommendation of priority substances to be considered for authorisation published by ECHA.

1 December 2010 - (Phase 1) By this date, the following pre-registered 'phase-in' substances should have been registered when supplied at:
= 1000 tonnes per annum (tpa) or;
= 100 tpa and classified under CHIP (Chemicals [Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply] Regulations) as very toxic to aquatic organisms or;
= 1 tpa and classified under CHIP as Cat 1 or 2 carcinogens, mutagens or reproductive toxicants.

1 June 2013 - (Phase 2) - Deadline for registration of substances supplied at = 100 tpa.

1 June 2018 - (Phase 3) - Deadline for registration of substances supplied at = 1 tpa.


For more information, visit: http://www.hse.gov.uk/reach/