The legislation sets Europe on a first step towards protecting the public and the environment from hazardous chemicals: companies will be obliged to provide safety data for chemicals that they produce or import in large volumes into Europe.

Information and substitution

More importantly, companies will be obliged to substitute chemicals that persist in the environment (do not break down easily) and accumulate in the food chain, if a safer alternative substance exists. The law will also allow the public to obtain information about the presence of a limited number of hazardous chemicals in consumer products.

Historically, laws to tackle the widespread contamination with hazardous chemicals, some dating back 40 years, had proved slow-in-the-making and wholly inadequate.

100,000 chemicals never registered for safety

Most of the 100,000 chemicals registered today have never been tested for safety. Chemical companies have been able to produce and sell almost any chemical without restriction, as it was up to the public authorities to prove that a chemical was dangerous before they could restrict its use or ban it.

Despite REACH having the full backing of medical associations, trade unions, consumer groups and environmental organisations, it was undermined to a large extent by the powerful vested interests of the chemicals industry, who fought to prevent a strong law on chemicals.

A budget of millions to destroy REACH

The opposition to REACH was spearheaded by the powerful German chemical industry. With a budget of millions and an army of Brussels lobbyists, it set about trying to destroy REACH.

It was backed up by the Bush Administration in Washington, which mobilised ambassadors and other non-European countries to pressurise Brussels to water down the law. Scare tactics abounded, with talk of hugely inflated costs and exaggerated job losses.

This lobbying initially aimed to prevent REACH ever seeing the light of day. When that failed, the anti-REACH alliance worked - and succeeded - to lessen the requirements on companies to provide adequate safety data or to substitute the most dangerous chemicals.

As a result, there are major loopholes in REACH, which may allow many chemicals that can cause serious health problems, including cancer, birth defects and reproductive illnesses, to continue being used in manufacturing and consumer goods.

Further concessions may also exempt companies that import and manufacture chemicals in volumes below 10 tonnes a year - 60 percent of chemicals covered by REACH - from the requirement to provide any meaningful safety data at all.