REACH

What is REACH ?

REACH is the EU chemicals legislation dealing with the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of CHemicals.
 

The legislation became effective 1. June 2007 and will be implemented stepwise until it is fully implemented 1. June 2022.  REACH covers chemical substances as such, in preparations or in articles. The regulation replaces numerous EU laws and is complementary to other environmental and safety legislation.

The objective of REACH is to ensure a high level of protection from exposure to chemicals in order to safeguard human health and the environment.

Costumer information

According to the definition in REACH, printed circuit boards are articles, thus GPV PCB Division A/S is an article producer.

Requirements for Article producers:

(REACH Article 7.1):
Any producer or importer of articles shall submit a registration to the Agency for any substance contained in those articles, if both the following conditions are met:
(a)  the substance is present in those articles in quantities totalling over 1 tonne per
producer or importer per year;
(b)  the substance is intended to be released under normal or reasonably foreseeable
conditions of use.

No substances in our products are intended to be released under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions, and we shall not submit any registration.

(REACH Article 7.2)
Any producer or importer of articles shall notify the Agency, in accordance with paragraph 4 of this Article, if a substance meets the criteria in Article 57 and is identified in accordance with Article 59(1), if both the following conditions are met:
(a)  the substance is present in those articles in quantities totalling over 1 tonne per producer or importer per year;
(b)  the substance is present in those articles above a concentration of 0,1 % weight by weight (w/w).

According to our analysis, no substances in our products will meet the criteria in Article 57 (SVHC-substances) thus the Agency should not be notified.
We will however follow up on the Annex 14, when published. If any substance, contrary to our expectation, will enter Annex 14, we shall of course notify the Agency and our costumers in accordance with the requirements.

Links
European Chemicals Agency  www.echa.europa.eu