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CBA Calls for an Extension of the REACH Pre-Registration Period - 16/10/2008
The Chemical Business Association (CBA) today called for the European Commission to extend the REACH pre-registration period by six weeks as the result of the persistent unreliability of the REACH IT system.
The REACH IT process for bulk pre-registrations was six weeks late in becoming available, a factor which has significantly reduced the six month pre-registration period available to industry. Since then there have been intermittent problems with the system ‘timing out’ registrants. Currently, the processing time for bulk pre-registrations is taking several days with error messages taking anything up to eight hours to arrive.
Melvyn Whyte, Chairman of CBA’s REACH Task Force, said, “Complex IT systems always encounter problems and REACH has been no exception. However, as around 70% of all pre-registrations use the bulk pre-registration process, the inability of this system to function efficiently will have a serious impact on industry.”
“In the worst case, substances which are not pre-registered by 1 December 2008 will have to be removed from the market until the full REACH registration process can be completed. This could result in a major disruption in the operation of the chemical supply chain and impact the European economy in already uncertain times,” he added.
“The situation requires an urgent solution and the CBA is calling on the European Commission to adopt a more flexible view of the pre-registration period and extend it by six weeks – the period that was lost to industry at the outset of the six month period,” said Melvyn Whyte.
“We understand that the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is sympathetic to the situation facing industry, but is powerless to act as only the European Commission has the authority under the REACH provisions to prevent industry from being unfairly penalised because of the unreliability of the REACH IT system,” he added.
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Further information from: Peter Newport, Director, CBA 01270 258200 www.chemical.org.uk
NOTE TO EDITIORS
- CBA accepts that if the European Commission agrees to its proposal for a six week extension of the pre-registration period, this will also put back the January 2009 deadline for ECHA to publish a full list of pre-registered substances. However, as ECHA has already published an intermediate list of these substances, the CBA does not believe that a six week extension of pre-registration will materially affect the continued implementation of the REACH provisions.
- Pre-registration data released by ECHA reveals that almost 40,000 substances have already been pre-registered and that more than 1,500 bulk pre-registration dossiers had been submitted by 1 September 2008.
- Each year CBA members distribute more than 2.5 million tonnes of chemicals with a market value of almost three billion euros. CBA members, the majority of which are SMEs, are the key industry interface with thousands of UK downstream chemical users.
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