Christel Musset
Director of Registration, European Chemicals Agency

Abstract

The last REACH registration deadline on 31 May 2018 completes what was already started in 2008: collecting information on all of the chemicals in use on the European market and closing the gap of not having the data on existing chemicals to do proper risk management. It is yet another important milestone towards making the use of chemicals safer throughout the world, and the European chemical industry is pivotal in making this happen.

All of the existing chemicals manufactured or imported in the European Economic Area between 1 and 100 tonnes a year need to be registered by 31 May 2018 with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). This is the last registration deadline under REACH, and completes the transition period of 10 years for existing chemicals under the regulation.

This last deadline is the most challenging one, both for companies registering their substances and also for ECHA.

Firstly, the sheer volume of registrations submitted is expected to be two to three times more than with the previous deadlines. 

Secondly, many of the companies that are involved are expected to be inexperienced 

and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with less resources than larger ones. 

Thirdly, there is not that much information available on the low volume substances. 

This means that companies will need to budget both time and money in order to generate the data needed to register their substances.

As the smaller companies do not have the same amount of resources as larger ones, they are having to go through the ...