REACH: Mixed results for workers
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Ten years of intense debate has culminated in the EU chemicals legislation reform, finally adopted by the European Parliament and Council in December 2006.
The ETUC welcomed the adoption of REACH because it shifts the burden of proof onto industry, which has now to provide essential information on chemicals, including their toxicity, before placing them on the market. The legislation came into force on 1 June 2007, and will enable Europe to take a more socially responsible approach to managing chemical risks.
But the ETUC still rues the fact that some provisions have been dropped in response to chemical industry lobbying. The main step back for workers concerns the chemical safety report, which will only be required for substances produced in volumes of at least 10 tonnes a year. This means that workers who are exposed to the 20,000 chemicals produced in quantities of from 1 to 10 tonnes will be denied access to information that is vital to their safety.
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REACH: Impact for workers
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Prevention at the workplace depends very much on the information provided to workers. REACH is an instrument for producing and transmitting useful data on chemicals. The potential benefits expected from REACH depend not just on the various actors involved applying the regulation, but even more so on the information that the system will genereate on the hazards of chemicals and means of managing the risks related to their uses.
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Presentation for the "Workshop for State Authorities Impacts of Chemicals policy How to measure it?", Laulasmaa, Estonia, 11-12 November 2004.
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Presentation for the "New Chemicals Law, New Political Landscape" conference, Copenhagen, October 18th, 2004.
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, Laurent Vogel, TUTB.
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14-15 June 2004. Workshop report.
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Workshop on REACH Impact Assessments, The Hague, 25-27 October 2004.
Report prepared for European Commission by Risk & Policy Analysts Ltd, Loddon, 2003.
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REACHing the workplace
How workers stand to benefit from the new European policy on chemical agents
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ETUI activities on chemical risk
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Seminar on protecting workers from chemicals
Amsterdam, January 21-22, 2008
Thirty-odd European trade unionists, researchers and European Commission representatives attended a seminar on protecting workers from chemical hazards in Amsterdam on 21 and 22 January. The seminar was called by the ETUI-REHS Health and Safety Department to take forward the trade union debate on REACH implementation, the development of a new international classification and labelling system, and the setting of occupational exposure limit values for carcinogens. The health implications of industrial applications of nanotechnologies were also looked at, while the areas of uncertainty surrounding their rapid development provoked a lively debate.
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ETUC conferences on REACH
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REACH and Worker Protection Legislation
Two complementary pieces of law for improved worker protection?
Brussels, September 19, 2006
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To explore how REACH will affect existing worker protection legislation, the ETUC and its Research and Training Institute, the ETUI-REHS, held a conference on REACH and worker protection legislation: two complementary pieces of law for improved worker protection? in Brussels on 19 September 2006. |
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A special focus has been put on the linkages between REACH and two sets of worker protection rules - the Chemicals and Carcinogens Directives. The conference has given ETUC-affiliated unions and other economic, political and institutional players an opportunity to trade views ahead of Novembers scheduled second reading in the European Parliament. It also aimed to help inform the social dialogue in European industry.
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REACHing the workplace
Trade unions call for a more ambitious European policy on chemicals
Brussels, March 11-12, 2005
The ETUC held a conference bringing together the main players in the debate around the reform of the European legislation on chemicals. The conference took place in Brussels on 11-12 March 2005.
Those attending the conference included Mr Stavros Dimas, European Commissioner for the Environment, Mr Lucien Lux, Minister of State in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, representing the presidency of the Council and Mr Guido Sacconi, principal rapporteur on REACH for the European Parliament, as well as representatives from industry, consumer associations and the main environmental NGOs.
The Conference report has been published in a special issue of our Newsletter.
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New chemicals classification and labelling system
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On 27 June 2007, the European Commission adopted a proposal to bring the European system for classifying, labelling and packaging chemicals and preparations into line with the Global Harmonised System (GHS) created by the United Nations to ensure that the same criteria are used to classify and label hazardous chemicals worldwide.
The Commission proposal for a GHS-compliant European regulation still has to be adopted by the European Parliament and Council. After a transitional period, the new legislation will replace existing Community rules on classification and labelling of hazardous chemicals (Directive 67/548/EEC for dangerous chemicals and Directive 1999/45/EEC for dangerous preparations).
The new system will also affect health and safety legislation, like the Chemicals Directive (98/24/EC) and Carcinogens Directive (2004/37/EC), both of which require employers to assess and eliminate or minimise all risks to the health and safety of their workers from the use of dangerous chemicals or preparations.
The GHS will bring changes to the way some substances and preparations are classified and labelled in the EU: some chemicals already classified as dangerous may be reclassified as more or less hazardous , while others not currently classified could be put into the hazardous category.
De-classification of hazardous chemicals or preparations would deprive workers and consumers of key information for their health and safety. The ETUC is adamantly opposed to the Commission's proposal to exempt additional substances which will be classified as hazardous under the GHS from the scope of Directive 98/24/EC. It is also against any de-classification of hazardous substances currently classified under Annex I of Directive 67/548/EEC without a reassessment of data on their ecotoxicity.
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- Richard A. Denison, Environmental Defense Fund (USA), 2007
- Green Chemistry: Cornerstone to a sustainable California
University of California. The Centers for Occupational and Environmental Health, 2007
- REACH, the new European chemicals policy: what for?
Tony Musu, New Solutions, 16(2), 2006.
- The Danish Ecological Council, 2006.
- Effect thresholds and adequate control of risks:the fatal flaws in the Council position on Authorisation within REACH
Greenpeace report, 2006.
- Toxic Lobby: How the chemicals industry is trying to kill REACH
Greenpeace describes how the chemicals industry has scared and misled decision-makers by denying the problems of chemical contamination, May 2006.
- Profits before health and environment. How the chemical industry is undermining European chemical legislation
Andrea Foster and Roddy Mackenzie, Friends of the Earth Europe, 2005.
Workshop proceedings, London, 14-15 June 2004.
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(TVLink Europe)
(Danish project to get ideas for possible substitution of dangerous chemicals in various sectors and processes)
(International Labour Office - International Occupational Safety and Health Information Centre (CIS) provides online access to chemical exposure limits for a number of countries)
(INERIS, France)
(International Chemical Secretariat)
(website being part of a joint campaign between the Chemicals Health Monitor project of HEAL and MDRGF)
(Chemicals Legislation European Enforcement Network)
(Centre national de la recherche scientifique - Unité de prévention du risque chimique)
(OECD portal offering free public access to information on properties of chemicals)
(European Chemicals Bureau)
(European Chemicals Agency)
(European Environmental Bureau)
(European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation)
(European chemical Substances Information System)
(Information system on hazardous substances of the German institutions for statutory accident insurance and prevention)
(UNECE)
(Substitution and alternatives. Case studies, examples and tools. WHO)
(Database of more than 500 chemicals compiled by the US Environmental Protection Agency)
(International Programme on Chemical Safety)
(Chemical Safety Information from Intergovernmental Organizations)
(Information on the health and environmental risks of over 100.000 chemicals - in Spanish)
(Family of chemically-specific databases developed by various US governement agencies)
(Japanese web site)
(United Nations Environment Programme)
Contact person:
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