Jul. 1 – EU: Trade Unions call for REACH amendment to cover nanomaterials

From EurActiv.com:

European labour unions have called on the European Commission to amend the REACH regulation on chemicals to better protect workers against nanomaterials throughout their lifecycle. Their call comes shortly after the EU executive argued that nanotech is already covered by existing EU regulation…

The confederation calls on the Commission to amend the bloc’s chemicals legislation (REACH) to cover nanomaterials manufactured or imported below the threshold of one tonne per year. According to ETUC, nanomaterials could escape the current chemicals registration procedure as they would probably weigh less.

Unions say another argument in favour of amending REACH is the fact that the legislation’s current requirement for a chemicals producer to provide a chemical safety report only for production volumes above 10 tonnes per year “will allow many manufacturers or importers to avoid doing a risk assessment before putting nanomaterials on the market”. ETUC therefore wants a mandatory chemical safety report “for all substances registered under the REACH regulation for which nanometer-scale use has been identified”.

Click on the above link for the full story. We will be watching closely to see if REACH is amended in any way.