REACH (EU Chemicals Regulation)

REACH — Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals — is European Union Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 governing the production and use of chemical substances and their potential impacts on human health and the environment. It is the EU’s most comprehensive chemicals law and a primary driver of substance-of-very-high-concern (SVHC) reporting in PLM material declarations.

Scope

REACH requires registration of substances above 1 tonne/year, evaluation of dossiers, authorisation of SVHCs on the Candidate List, and restriction of substances in Annex XVII. Manufacturers and importers must communicate SVHC content above 0.1% w/w in articles down the supply chain (Article 33) and notify ECHA above 1 tonne/year per importer (Article 7). PLM systems are where article composition, declarations, and exemptions are tracked.

Relationships (see sidebar)

• Normative for the Part Master (substance attributes), Classification Schema (substance lists), and AML (per-manufacturer declarations).
• Companion to RoHS and WEEE in the EU compliance stack.

Steward

European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), Helsinki.