What's different about REACH?
- REACH replaced 40 existing legal acts and create a single system for all chemical substances. This is different from the old chemical legislation, which distinguished between so-called "existing" and "new" chemicals, based on the cut-off date of 1981.
- Under REACH, the burden of proof for demonstrating the safe use of chemicals is transferred from Member States to industry (Ref. Q5 on industry obligations). This is to ensure that risks to human health and environment are avoided or adequately controlled.
- Enterprises that manufacture or import more than one tonne of a chemical substance per year will be required to register the chemical in a central database.
