Friends of the Earth Europe, alongside other environmental, health and consumer NGOs will continue monitoring and working on the Implementation of REACH to ensure that it delivers the highest possible level of protection for human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals.

Pre-registration starts on 1 June 2008 and ends 1 December 2008. It involves the industry submitting limited information about substances they import or produce such as the name of the substance, the details of the pre-registrant and the tonnage band of the substance to the European Chemicals Agency. For more information see the Agency's website

The list project - under the auspices of the International Chemical Secretariat, and in cooperation with science and business communities, the NGOs are preparing a candidate list for the substances subject to authorisation under REACH. The list will contain substances for which there is scientific evidence that they fulfill the criteria of Article 57 of the Regulation (and therefore are considered to be Substances of Very High Concern). The aim of this project is to ensure that authorisation is an effective tool to fast-track the most urgent Substances of Very High Concern for substitution, and to facilitate toxic use reduction by businesses. Further information


Photo credit: chemicosystems.com

Agency watch - the NGOs will monitor developments in the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), due to become operational on 1 June 2008. The NGO representative to the Management Board of ECHA will be raising pertinent concerns on behalf of civil society, while the NGOs at Brussels and national levels will be following the work of the Agency's committees and other issues of relevance, particularly in terms of independence of experts and transparency of ECHA decision-making. Further information

Reviews of annexes - REACH contains many opportunities for improvement but also threats of weakening the legislation throughout the numerous reviews and revisions. The NGOs are participating in a Commission subgroup for the preparation of the reviews of the REACH Annexes, through our representative, Ninja Reineke, from the WWF European Policy Office. The upcoming reviews in 2008 will involve the following:
* a revision of the list of exemptions to registration, evaluation and information in the supply chain (Annexes IV and V),
* possible introduction of new thresholds for carcinogens and mutagens (Annex I)
* new criteria defining what constitutes adequate justification for not carrying out certain safety tests (Annex XI) and
* review of the criteria for identifying substances that are Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) or that are Very Persistent and Very Bioaccumulative (vPvB) (Annex XIII).

For further information contact Ninja Reineke at nreineke@wwfepo.org

National implementation work - the Competent Authorities in the EU member states are responsible for the implementation and enforcement of REACH Regulation. FoEE member groups will be monitoring and providing input to their work. For more information contact your national NGO or Competent Authority

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