After more than four years of fierce controversy and unprecedented lobbying, the European Union’s long-awaited regulatory overhaul of the chemicals industry came into force in June.
The EU’s Reach (registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals) legislation left all sides grumbling: the industry says its requirements are too onerous; environmentalists complain it will fail to reduce the use of hazardous substances; Europe’s trading partners are unhappy that Reach will affect chemicals producers outside the economic bloc.
