16/02/2006 - The European
Commission study, ‘The impact of REACH on
the environment and human health”, concludes
that the new chemicals law, REACH, could
bring environmental benefits of up to €50
billion over 25 years. This is in addition
to the direct €50 billion health benefits
over 30 years already identified by the
Commission in its Extended Impact Assessment
in 2003. The study examined the costs caused
by current chemical pollution of, amongst
others, drinking water and sewage that REACH
will help avoid. The benefits are calculated
on the assumption that the Commission proposal
will cut the costs of chemical pollution
by just 10%. However, were REACH strengthened
to include mandatory substitution then the
benefits would increase exponentially.
The Commission’s study uses three different
approaches to calculate the potential health
and environment benefits of REACH. However,
whichever approach is taken, the study clearly
concludes that the benefits far outweigh
the costs of REACH to the chemical industry
-estimated to be around €2.3 billion over
11 years- even if one looks only at the
damage to the environment that REACH will
help avoid.
Therefore, WWF believes that at Second
Reading, Members of the European Parliament
and the Council should reverse the continual
weakening of REACH and require chemical
manufacturers to provide the necessary safety
information to identify chemicals of high
concern, and replace them by safer alternatives
whenever they exist. This is the only way
the economic, human health and environmental
benefits identified by the study will be
realised.
