The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is of the opinion that the REACH proposal constitutes a significant contribution to sustainable development in keeping with the commitments made by the EU and its Member States in Lisbon and Gothenburg.

REACH should have considerable impact on the existing legislation designed to protect workers exposed to hazardous substances in the various sectors concerned, namely by:

We have to recall that the manufacture and use of chemicals in the workplace takes a heavy toll on workers. Indeed, one out of every three occupational diseases recognised annually in Europe can be ascribed to exposure to hazardous chemicals.

The ETUC demands that particular attention should be paid to ensuring that the obligations laid down in the REACH system are consistent with those of the occupational safety and health directives. ETUC believes that downstream users, like manufacturers and importers of chemical substances, must be responsible for all safety-related aspects of their products for that part of the life cycle in which they are involved, including recycling and disposal. ETUC welcomes this adoption of the principle of shifting the burden of proof, and strongly supports it. On the other hand there is a pressing need at European level to diagnose the requirements that this imposes in terms of defining and financing public and private sector R&D.

Both the costs and the benefits should be considered in all three dimensions- the social, the environment and the economic - in order to assess the effectiveness of the new system and the impact on employment and health. There is clearly a need to better understand the likely effects (positive and negative) REACH might have on employment in the different sectors concerned throughout its implementation period.

ETUC declaration on the proposed reform of EU policy on Chemicals (REACH)