Find out if the new EU chemicals legislation applies to you

Do you know what REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals) means for your products and your company?

You should find out your requirements under REACH if one of the following applies to you:

- you manufacture or import chemical substances or mixtures of chemical substances (preparations) into Europe.

- you produce or import articles (such as construction materials, electronic components, toys or vehicles) which contain substances included in a list of substances of very high concern or which are released during their use.

-you process chemicals or you formulate preparations for end use (for example cleaning products, paints or motor oils)

-you use these formulated products professionally. (In this case you are a 'downstream user'.)

REACH gives greater responsibility to the industry to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances. Manufacturers and importers will be required to gather information on the properties of their chemical substances which will allow their safe handling and to register the information in a central database run by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki.

The European Chemical Agency has IT tools and guidance documents to help. Visit their website at http://echa.europa.eu.

Sources:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_intro.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/pdf/reach_me_flyer_en.pdf
Plastics and Rubber Weekly

Efforts in workplace safety pay off!

The Rubber Sector Safety Group, sponsored by the Rubber Association of Canada celebrated the success of the 2007 program year by sharing rebates from the WSIB in the amount of $179,429.55. Congratulations to the group.

The 2008 program year has also been completed with the development of additional program elements by each participating member. We will have to wait until late in 2009 to see where the incident and severity rate performance comes in.

In the 2009 program year, as the WSIB Safety Group program matures and evolves into the "Accreditation Program", members have been encouraged to join with a safety group sponsor in their geographic area for program participation. The Rubber Association will redirect its efforts through the Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation committee format to assist members with issues affecting our industry.