CFATS isn't the only wide-ranging new regulation that chemical manufacturers must be concerned about. The European Union is phasing in regulations, known as Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), that will require chemical manufacturers and many of their customers to register the chemicals that they produce or use, evaluate those chemicals, and, in some cases, receive EU authorization to continue using them.
The EU launched REACH officially in June with the creation of a new agency, the European Chemicals Agency. Manufacturers are required to begin registering chemicals by Dec. 1, 2008. The EU has estimated that, over the next 11 years, REACH will require manufacturers to register their use of some 30,000 chemicals.
REACH may, in fact, prove more expensive for chemical manufacturers to implement and more potentially disruptive than CFATS, experts say. That's because REACH requires manufacturers not only to register chemicals they make or use, but also to collaborate with suppliers and customers to make sure they are all making and using specific chemicals in the correct quantities. Chemical suppliers that fail to meet REACH requirements or that, for example, ship more of a specific chemical than they have registered can be denied the right to fill orders, says Frank Kochendoerfer, chemical industry business unit director at SAP.
The EU has estimated that it will cost manufacturers from €2.8 billion to €5.2 billion to comply with REACH over the next 11 years.