REACH agreement will not protect workers' health

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has warned that REACH, the new European chemicals framework, will be "inadequate" at protecting workers' health.

Agreed last month, REACH obliges chemical producers to register all chemical substances produced or imported above a total quantity of one tonne per year - a procedure that will be required for about 30,000 substances. For more hazardous chemicals, producers will have to submit a substitution plan to replace them with safer alternatives.

The regulations will come into force progressively from June 2007, but the registration process will take until 2018 to complete. A new Chemicals Agency, to be based in Helsinki, will be responsible for the authorisation process.

However, there are a number of weaknesses in the new framework. Firms will be able to go on using certain extremely dangerous substances even if safer alternatives are available. And they will only have to report on chemical safety for substances produced in volumes of at least 10 tonnes per year - meaning that workers who are exposed to the 20,000 substances produced in quantities of one to 10 tonnes will have no access to information that is crucial to their safety.

The ETUC said that "the most intense lobbying campaign ever mounted by industry within the European institutions" had led to the loss of many important provisions.

The TUC will produce a guide to REACH and its implications for UK chemicals legislation later this year.