REACH
Overview
The European Commission put proposals forward in 2003 to develop a system of registration for chemicals which is known as Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals - REACH. The two most important aims are to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the hazards of chemicals and to enhance the competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry!
Under REACH, the burden of proof for demonstrating the safe use of chemicals will be transferred from Member States to industry to ensure that risks to human health and environment are avoided or adequately controlled. This regulation will replace over 40 existing legal acts. 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. This database will be operated by the EU Chemicals Agency (ECHA) which will be based in Helsinki, Finland. A dossier will have to be submitted containing information on properties, uses and safe ways of handling the chemical being registered. This affects about 30,000 differing producers involving some 100,000 chemical substances.
Downstream Users - that is people who buy coal fired power station products
REACH is proving increasingly complex, but it is only the producers and importers of substances that have to take action at this stage, by pre-registering these substances with ECHA between 1 June 2008 and 30 November 2008 (inc). So called downstream users, e.g. the users of coal fired power station ash products do NOT need to pre-register or register, however, they do need to ensure that the producer or importer of their substances is aware of the applications to which it is being put to. Please read the following document:
Guidance for Downstream Users (Feb 2008) - du_en.pdf
Please Note: Users should check the ECHA web site for the latest versions of any documents as things are continually changing. The UKQAA cannot take any responsibility for any misinterpretation of the REACH regulations, it is solely up to the user to verify for themselves their responsibility in compliance.
Downstream users are advised to contact their suppliers of substances, e.g. fly ash, furnace bottom ash, cenospheres, etc in our case and confirm that that the supplier (or importer) intends to register the substance including the particular application(s) the user in putting these substances to. If a supplier ultimately does not know of a particular application and/or fails to register it within the registration dossier, the use will eventually become illegal.
The UKQAA in conjunction with ECOBA, the European Ash Association, is coordinating the pre-registration and registration for the purposes of REACH on behalf of the members of the UKQAA. In fact it is hoped to form SIEF, a body that carries out the work required for the full registration, which can include all coal fired power station ash products, including those companies who are not members of either ECOBA or UKQAA. The UKQAA will be collating lists of applications for coal fired power station products and will be submitting them as part of the full registration dossier. Downstream users are urged to contact their ash supplier or the UKQAA to register their applications.
The following button opens a list are those applications we are aware of and intend to register at the appropriate time.
The above is a simple overview of REACH, a complex system created by the EU. We would urge anyone who has doubts about their responsibilities to review the extensive documentation on the ECHA web sites: http://echa.europa.eu/home_en.html and http://echa.europa.eu/reach_en.html
The Environment & Sustainability 
Throughout the construction industry environmental and sustainability issues are increasingly important. Various documents are published by the UKQAA on these issues, click on the Environment link to the left for a list of those documents.
The use of coal fired power station ash has for many years been considered one of the most environmentally friendly materials for the following reasons;
- Coal fired power station ash products, such as Pulversied Fuel Ash (PFA - also known as fly ash) and Furnace Bottom Ash (FBA) result from the burning of coal to make electricity. The environmental impacts of burning coal are normally taken to be associated with the electricity production and the not the production of the PFA and FBA.
- PFA and FBA are effectively zero emissions by-products (at the power station gate) and by their use in construction, they are generally displacing cement, virgin aggregates, fillers, etc that all have associated impacts and sustainability issues. For information about the various applications see the menu on the left or the related links bottom left.
- Currently more ash is produced in the UK than sold. Therefore the use of ash in construction diverts materials from landfill.
- In some circumstances the green house gas emissions of using PFA may be less than the emissions associated with the disposal operations.
- PFA and FBA usually substitutes for virgin aggregates, thereby reducing the environmental impacts of winning those aggregates.
- In many applications PFA partially substitutes for Portland cement as a pozzolana, resulting in large reductions green house gas emissions.
- The impacts associated with the use of PFA and FBA have been independently assessed by BRE during 2007 and Eco point Certificates are available.
- The UKQAA members are working on a PFA/FBA specific Responsibility Sourced Materials scheme in conjunction with the precast and ready mixed concrete industries.
- All UKQAA coal fired power stations are ISO 14001 approved and operate to the highest standard of environmental protection feasible.
- There are large stockpiles of material available, supplying those sites that need large quantities of material. Wherever possible materials are supplied using rail transport for such contracts, thereby reducing emissions, conserving fuel and removing vehicles from the roads.
For information about the current savings in green house gas emissions, please go to our Environmental Information page, where the various benefits are discussed.
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