What is REACH Compliance and Regulation
REACH is the Regulation (EC) NO 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals, which came into force on 1 June 2007 and applied on 1 June 2008. It becomes a harmonized regulation concerning preventative administration on all chemicals to be placed on the EU market superseding more than 40 directives and regulations for chemical management. The implementation of the regulation materially impacts the export to the European Union especially that of chemicals, electromechanical products, textiles, printing and dyeing, rubber, plastics, toys, and furniture, etc.
What is the Scope of REACH Compliance?
Now REACH registration is required for all substances manufactured in the EU or imported into the EU in quantities of one tonne or more per year. This includes substances on their own, in mixtures, or substances in articles when they are intended to be released under normal conditions of use. The last REACH registration deadline is 31 May 2018 for all substances.
For all registrations, a registration dossier has to be prepared and submitted electronically via REACH-IT to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). Normally, the registration must be successfully completed and a REACH registration number assigned to the registrant before a substance can be manufactured, imported, or placed on the market.
Which substances need to be registered under REACH?
Registration is required for all substances manufactured or imported in quantities of one tonne or more per year per manufacturer or importer unless they are exempted. For polymers, monomers shall be registered.
The following substances are exempt from REACH Compliance registration:
- Substances exempted from REACH regulation: radio-active substances, substances under the customs supervision, substances used for national defense, non-isolated intermediates, wastes, etc.;
- Substances regulated by other legislation: substances in food, medicinal products, plant protection products, etc.;
- Substances in REACH annex VI: a list of exempt substances well-known to be safe (i.e., water, nitrogen);
- Substances covered by REACH annex V: by-products, naturally occurring substances, impurities, etc.;
How to Demonstrate Product Compliance with EU REACH?
If your product is a chemical product (substance or mixture), you need to ensure that every substance in it has been registered under EU REACH when the volume of that substance exceeds 1t/y. The best way to show compliance is to obtain a REACH registration number issued by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
Read more about REACH registration or REACH registration number.
If your product is an article (i.e., clothes, toys, electrical appliances), you most likely need to check if your product contains any substance of very high concern(SVHC) and any substances on REACH Annex XVII restricted substance list. Most of the buyers probably do not want to buy any article containing an SVHC of more than 0.1%w/w or any article that does not meet REACH restriction conditions.
Read more about REACH SVHC
How to get REACH Compliance Certification
As REACH is one of the most comprehensive environmental legislation to come out of the European Union, so how to get REACH compliance Certification?
Testing with AQI Service allows you to integrate your REACH Compliance Testing during your product inspection, guarantee the sample is from your production, not a sample the factory wants you to test.
Contact Third-Party Testing Laboratory to verify the compliance of your products with REACH requirements below.
REACH Restricted Substance List 2019 (REACH Annex XVII)
- Azo colorants and Azo dyes (entry 43)
- Polycyclic-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (entry 50)
- Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid and its derivatives (PFOS) (entry 53, deleted in 2010 and subject to EU POPs regulation now.)
- Phthalates (entry 51 and 52)
- Cadmium and its compounds (entry 23)
- Nickel and its compounds (entry 27)
- Lead and its compounds (entry 63)
- Mercury and its compounds (entry
- Chromium VI compounds (entry 47)
- Arsenic compounds (entry 19)
- CMR 1A/1B substances listed in Annex VI of CLP regulation (28, 29, 30)
- Nonylphenol and nonylphenol ethoxylates (entry 46)
- Organostannic compounds (entry 20)
- Hazardous solvents (benzene, cyclohexane, triclorobenzene, chloroform, etc);
- Bisphenol A (entry 66, added in Dec 2016)
- decaBDE (entry 67, added in Feb 2017)
- PFOA, its salts, and PFOA-related substances (entry 68, added in June 2017)
- D4 and D5 (entry 70, added in Jan 2018)
- Methanol (entry 69, added in April 2018)
- 1-methyl-2-pyrrolidone(NMP) (entry 71, added in April 2018)
- CMR substance in textile and footwear (entry 72, added in Oct 2018)
- View full REACH Restriction list