Euro-MPs back major chemicals law
November 17, 2005
The European Parliament has approved far-reaching legislation which will lead to the safety testing of thousands of chemicals used in everyday products.
The law is called Reach - Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals - and will lead to the creation of an EU chemicals database.
Employers say it will impose heavy costs and cause firms to flee the EU.
MEPs included a measure obliging firms to substitute safe chemicals for hazardous ones, whenever possible.
It has to be approved by national governments before it can become law, and may return to the parliament for another vote next year.
Reach in its original form would have led to about 30,000 substances - found in everything from cars to computers to children's toys - being tested for their impact on health and the environment.
It has been intensely controversial, prompting some of the biggest lobbying campaigns ever seen in Brussels, with industry on one side and health and environmental groups on the other.
Last week the main political groups in the European Parliament, the conservative European People's Party and the Socialist group, agreed on a compromise, limiting the data requirements for substances used in volumes of less than 10 tonnes.
All 30,000 chemicals will still need to be registered, but up to two-thirds of them may be exempted from tests.
Instead the new European Chemicals Agency, which the law would create, will choose which chemicals used in low volumes have to go through the testing procedure.
Businesses wanting to use the most dangerous chemicals will have to get special authorisation from the agency.
The law will also improve the labelling of products made with chemicals that are potentially harmful.
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