Corrected: Reach help to be ready by year-end

18 April 2008 22:54  [Source: ICIS news]

Correction: In the ICIS news story headlined "Reach help to be ready by year-end" dated 18 April 2008, please read in the sixth paragraph ...Van der Maten... instead of ...Van der Marten. Also, in the seventh paragraph please read ...$36-$52... instead of ...$230-$260.... A corrected story follows.

PARIS (ICIS news)-- Help will be available by the end of the year to chemical companies confused about how to register under Reach regulations, an official with an international standards committee said on Friday.

“We hope to get the standard approved in the committee’s next meeting in November,” said Taco van der Maten, vice chairman of the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standards committee.

Members of the so-called F40 committee on restricted substances have the task of writing a clear standard that will explain what companies must do to comply with Reach.

“Reach is difficult because it poses lots of questions for industry and is not always totally clear,” said van der Maten.
 
Products must be registered only if their makers intended for them to release substances, he said. He questioned what this means for airbags, for example, "where chemicals are intended to be released when they are activated, but in normal use they aren’t activated”.
 
Van der Maten said ASTM was trying to make registration easier for companies by taking a step-by-step approach.
 
The final standard will be available on ASTM’s website and companies will be able to purchase it either as a PDF or a paper copy for around $36-$52 (€23-€33).

The standard will be reviewed every four to five years - or more frequently if changes are made to the legislation or the committee decides that the standard needs revising.

Chemical companies have until June to pre-register their existing products and will then have three years to register chemicals produced in quantities of more than 1,000 tonnes/year.

Companies will have six years to register chemicals produced in quantities of 100-1,000 tonnes/year, while those who produce chemicals in quantities of 1-100 tonnes/year will have to be registered by 2018.

($1=€0.63)

By: Philippa Jones
+44 20 8652 3214

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly