‘Pre-registration is behind us, and now the hard work of complying with REACH really begins’.  That was the message of the REACH Post Pre-registration Conference held at The University of Hull on 13th January this year.    This successful conference, which folows on from the success of the unique REACH training course, was attended by 55 delegates from across the EU and as far away as Korea, China and the USA, was to take stock of the REACH implementation process to date, and look forward to what lies ahead. 

REACH Speakers

It’s fair to say that The European Commission has significantly underestimated the work that industry will have to do to comply with the REACH Regulation.    This was poignantly demonstrated by key note speaker, Dr Derek Knight, Senior Scientific Advisor at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki, who reported that over 2.7 Million pre-registrations had been submitted during the pre-registration period 1 June to 1 December 2008, close to 20 times the original estimate of 150,000.  
Delegates also heard from Mike Potts of the UK REACH Competent Authority who gave his perspective so far, and Rachel Green of Harlan Laboratories who spoke about the practical experiences and frustrations pre-registering as an OR and Third Party Representative
In the final session of the morning delegates were treated to a candid ’View from Across the Pond’ by Janet Winter-Blaschke of Cosmetics International, who commented on the reluctance of US companies to accept REACH as a reality.  Ms Winter-Blasche went on to generate much discussion with the news of the impending ban on animal testing for cosmetic ingredients.  With industry poised to commission testing to fill data gaps for REACH registration dossiers, there are implications here for the less obvious substances that find their way into our soaps, perfumes and lotions.
If the morning’s session was mainly a retrospective, in the afternoon conference delegates where starkly reminded of the major challenges which face them as they now prepare for registration under REACH.  A balanced view of what lies ahead was presented by speakers on REACH & articles, substance data evaluation, non-testing methods ((Q)SAR & read-across), exposure assessment, working in SIEFs, and the legal aspects of consortia and competition law .
Overall the conference set the scene for the next phase of REACH implementation, providing a valuable insight into what industry must achieve to comply with this extremely challenging piece of legislation.
The conference was organised by the Environmental Technologies Centre of Industrial Collaboration at the University of Hull, and sponsored by Humber Chemical Focus.

For a more complete review of the conference, please click here.