The new EU Regulation, REACH, (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) came into force on 1st June 2007. This new European system for regulating substance safety will affect most businesses in Europe in one way or another due to the ubiquitous nature of substances in our every day lives.

The aim of REACH is to improve the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the properties of chemical substances whilst, at the same time, enhancing the innovative capability and competitiveness of the EU chemicals and metals industry. It requires manufacturers and importers to gather information on the properties of their substances and to use that data to help to manage them safely. This data should also be formerly registered, in a registration dossier, to a central database. Failure to register within the given timelines will mean the substance cannot be manufactured or imported to the EU market.

Fundamentally, REACH is about information. There are currently over 100,000 chemicals on the market in Europe which have never been rigorously tested for their impacts on human health or the environment. In the past, chemicals have been presumed to be safe unless otherwise proved by regulatory authorities. Under REACH this is no longer the case. The Regulation introduces a 'no data, no market' rule, that requires the chemical companies to provide adequate safety data before their chemicals can be sold in the EU.