More on the costs of REACH compliance, this time provided by the Insurance Journal. Here is a snippet:
In its report, “The Risk Management Impacts of REACH”, Marsh outlines the increased business risks that chemicals suppliers and users globally are facing as a result of REACH.” According to Marsh the EC “has stated that REACH will cost the chemical industry €2.3 billion [$3 billion] over 11 years.”
Marsh’s report says that “more than 100,000 chemical substances are commonly in use within the EU, most of which have not had their properties evaluated and documented for safety.”
The overall aim of the proposed regulations, as specified in the EU bulletin, were to “improve the protection of human health and the environment while maintaining the competitiveness and enhancing the innovative capability of the EU chemicals industry.” The proposals indicated that “REACH would furthermore give greater responsibility to industry to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances. This information would be passed down the chain of production.”
While Marsh’s report recognizes that goal, it points out that the net effect will require “any company trading in the EU which either directly supplies chemicals into the EU, or has investments in the EU which manufactures chemicals or uses chemicals, will have to be compliant with REACH.”
See the full article here: Marsh Comments on Effect of EU’s ‘REACH’ Regulations