Andrew Duff welcomes Parliament's decision on chemical safety

1.12.38pm GMT Fri 18th Nov 2005

In a statement today, Liberal Democrat Euro MP for the East of England Andrew DUFF welcomed the outcome of the European Parliament's marathon vote on the REACH directive (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals). He said:

"This may prove to be the most significant piece of environmental legislation ever adopted by the European Union. REACH will identify and eliminate the use of all dangerous chemicals across Europe. Twenty-five national laws have been replaced by one EU law which will enforce compliance among all chemicals manufacturers across all member states.

Parliament has struck a good balance between the interests of the chemicals industry and the consumer. Although the burden of proof lies categorically with industry, the special difficulties of small firms have been recognised by reducing registration requirements for low quantities of non-hazardous chemicals and through the 'one substance, one registration' procedure -- which obliges the sharing of test data between enterprises. Some of the more expensive screening tests -- estimated at a cost of € 50,000 -- have been deleted from the original proposal in the category of 10 to 100 tonnes category. And some other conditions are relaxed for very small usage of non-toxic chemicals of below 10 tonnes.

For the East of England it is important that the Parliament has agreed specific exemptions for R & D purposes, although registration will still be needed in all cases where the substance is likely to be of very high concern (for example, carcinogenic, mutagenic or presenting a danger to reproductivity), and the substance has wide exposure.

The Parliament took a tough line on animal testing, retaining the proposal that tests cannot be repeated, and supporting measures aimed at speeding up the substitution of non-animal tests. Authorisation will only be granted for dangerous substances if suitable safer alternatives do not exist.

The new European Chemicals Agency will have sufficient authority to bring industry to book in case of failure to implement REACH. It will be responsible for oversight of how industry informs the public about substances used. Consumers will be able to request information about substances in a product whether it is produced in the EU or imported.

The ALDE group of Liberal and Democrat MEPs played a vital role in securing the amendments which allowed the Directive to go through; many of the votes were passed on a narrow margin with the ALDE as the swing group. It is now up to the UK Government, currently holding the Presidency of the EU, to secure a final agreement in the Council of Ministers by the end of the year."

ENDS/...