“When REACH is registered, the workload will increase geometrically, and there may be hundreds of millions of data sheets to be filled in. Polymers do not need to be registered and the types of monomers to be registered are also relatively small, but most of the additives used require registration. This may be a complex and deadly problem for us. Companies urgently need a chemical data platform that can be shared!†said Su Shi, Director of the Production and Operation Management Department of Sinopec Corp., at the meeting on the REACH regulations in the oil and chemical industry. Now more and more companies are making such calls.
Recently, many companies have reported to reporters that REACH pre-registration will begin on June 1 of this year. However, many channels for data acquisition have not yet been clarified. "If we do not register, we will withdraw from the EU market. Downstream users will not purchase raw materials for companies that do not have pre-registration to ensure that their products will be cleared, and the domestic market will shrink. If we register, we really don't know where to go. Which places to collect these data.†The head of a private enterprise in Shandong reluctantly told reporters. As the pre-registration date approaches, many companies are in a hurry and some are even at a loss.
According to Yang Weicai, vice president of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, REACH registration requires different departments and approaches for obtaining different data, such as physical and chemical data in the chemical mouth, environmental toxicity data in the environmental protection department, and human toxicological data in the health system. He believes that REACH pre-registration and registration not only involve the interests of enterprises, but also related to the industry's development prospects and have a greater impact on downstream industries.
Pan Derun, deputy chairman of the Petrochemical Association, said that as a new law, REACH has not yet come out with some specific documents. Some things are still unclear. I hope everyone can unite and work together to clear the registration barrier. In order to better serve the enterprise, the state should establish an information center for chemical safety and human health so that everyone can share this data.
Wang Nongyue, general manager of Shanghai Shengao Group once said in an interview that everyone is talking about joint registration to reduce costs. The mandatory sharing of vertebrate animal test data in the REACH regulation is intended to minimize the number of vertebrate animal trials, but few people currently mention that joint registration is for information sharing. He believes that the biggest benefit of joint registration is actually the sharing of resources and the reduction of unnecessary manpower, material and financial waste.
It is understood that on the horizontal information sharing of the same products, companies are eager to establish China's chemical data sharing platform and reduce unnecessary testing. The cost of domestic testing is much cheaper than sending it to the European Union. They hope that the country can give support to the industry testing center so that it can be recognized by the European Union as soon as possible. It is hoped that the government can join the GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) organization as soon as possible and be ready to experiment with other countries. The mutual recognition of data will reduce the cost of domestic enterprises to fulfill REACH regulations.
In the vertical information sharing of the industry chain, Zhang Xiangchen, director of the World Trade Organization Department of the Ministry of Commerce, has stated that downstream users are not "not concerned about themselves" in REACH registration information. They need to cooperate with the upstream companies to provide information on the use of chemicals and information on exposure scenarios to ensure that the safety information of the chemicals spreads on the upstream and downstream chains and protect the health of consumers. Su Shi also expressed the same opinion. He pointed out that REACH involves more than 90% of the EU's exports of products, involving the entire industry chain, regardless of who is registered, must provide complete information on the industry chain. He hopes that upstream and downstream companies can contact each other as soon as possible to make suppliers aware of the use of raw materials, including their use and related exposure settings in the chemical safety assessment.