REACH, the new European chemicals legislation, entered into force in June 2007 - and it brought a new set of legislative requirements to all companies working with chemical substances, chemical preparations or chemical articles.
What role does Hempel have under REACH?
REACH distinguishes between manufacturers, importers, downstream users, end users and distributors. Hempel is a typical downstream user: we don’t manufacture chemical substances, but we purchase them as raw materials and mix them in order to produce our products. This makes us a manufacturer of chemical preparations and so we must comply with the rules in REACH that concern downstream users.
Our suppliers, on the other hand, are typically manufacturers of chemical substances and must therefore comply with the REACH rules concerning registration, authorisation and pre-registration of chemical substances.
What is Hempel doing in order to comply with REACH?
Hempel’s REACH Team works with both our raw material suppliers and customers to ensure our products and processes comply with REACH at every stage of the manufacturing process.
For example, we rely on a continuous supply of chemicals in order to produce our coatings, and our REACH Team is in constant dialogue with our suppliers, primarily discussing our suppliers’ registration intention and the approved ‘uses’ of the substances that we use in our products.
Reducing chemicals of high concern The European Chemicals Agency publishes candidate lists of SVHC (Substances of Very High Concern). These chemicals are potentially subject to authorisation under REACH, and we are actively working to reduce their use in our products.
Find out more about REACH
REACH is an abbreviation for Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of CHemicals. For more information about REACH, please visit the official site of the new European Chemicals Agency.