Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals - REACH The registration of chemicals system within the EU. As PFA and FBA are classifed in many applications as recovered wastes - they are then substances for the purposes of REACH. 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 has replaced over 40 existing legal acts. Enterprises that manufacture or import more than one tonne of a chemical substance per year are required to register the chemical in a central database. This database is operated by the EU Chemicals Agency (ECHA) which is based in Helsinki, Finland. A dossier has to be submitted containing information on properties, uses and safe ways of handling the chemical being registered. This uses proprietary software called IUCLID. 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 All the UK power companies have registered under REACH as of 1 December 2010. However, 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) has registered the substance for 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 be effectively illegal. Ash products and Health & Safety Datasheets A typical COSHH & Safety Datasheet has been prepared covering PFA and FBA based on the requirements for REACH & COSHH, see UKQAA Datasheet No.9, and Safety Information Sheets (SIS) as Technical Datasheet 9.1 (PFA) and 9.2 (FBA) in REACH format. However the UKQAA is not a supplier but a trade association and it is the responsibility of the substance supplier to supply the user with such information. As PFA and FBA are not considered 'Dangerous Substances' under the REACH regulations, there is no requirement to supply Safety Data Sheets (SDS) to the user, while most ash suppliers will provide an SIS.