Re: [Biofuel] Industry Girds For Sprawling E.U. Regulatory Scheme
Some interesting takes - esp. the last comment about trusting the EU... would we rather trust a chemical mfr.?? Although this seems somewhat cumbersome, so are diseases and eaths caused by safe chemicals... safe according to the mfrs... DDT was the best thing ever for pests not so good for everything else though... anyway, I'm sure you get the idea... Won't be long and I'll become a Raging Grandpa grouch about all this crap... g - Original Message - From: Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 4:31 PM Subject: [Biofuel] Industry Girds For Sprawling E.U. Regulatory Scheme http://www.precaution.org/lib/06/prn_industry_girds_for_reach.061013.htm Greenwire, October 13, 2006 Industry Girds For Sprawling E.U. Regulatory Scheme [Rachel's introduction: The chemical industry continues to oppose REACH, Europe's proposed new precautionary chemicals policy -- but the handwriting is on the wall. REACH is coming, in one form or another.] By Russell J. Dinnage A landmark European Commission plan for overhauling chemical regulations is on its way to becoming law. Five years in the making, REACH -- the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals Act -- is a 600-page tome that has been making the rounds in government offices and corporate headquarters throughout Europe, generating thousands of public comments for European Union officials to review. The proposal is on track to become law sometime next year. Some experts are questioning U.S. readiness for a such a sweeping proposal that figures to reshape the global regulatory landscape for chemical manufacturers and all businesses that use chemicals. Businesses in the United States are completely not focused on this topic, said Angela Logomasini, who tracks risk and environmental policy for the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute. The reality of REACH is that it will affect everything in the business. From downstream manufacturers, importers, domestic users -- people are not aware that it could become a globally focused phenomenon. But it is not easy to assess REACH's effect on U.S. interests. There is, first of all, a lack of consensus about how deeply the law would dig into industry's bottom line. The Bush administration, for example, considers REACH a very important issue, but it has yet to produce an official evaluation of its potential economic impact on the U.S. chemical industry, said Matt Braud, spokesman for the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. Nonetheless, the administration has a strong opinion on REACH. In our view, and as expressed by many other governments, the E.U.'s proposal remains overly expansive, burdensome and would be difficult to implement effectively, Braud said. We believe the E.U.'s stated objectives of protecting human health and the environment are worthy policy goals; however, achieving those goals must be applied in ways that are consistent with the E.U.'s obligations to its trading partners under the World Trade Organization. Small and mid-sized U.S. chemical companies are keenly aware of REACH and are actively preparing for its impacts, said Jim Cooper, a spokesman for the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association. The American Chemistry Council, which represents large companies, did not return calls for comment on REACH's potential financial effect, and DuPont Chemical Corp. spokesman Dan Turner said the company is examining REACH but it does not have any comprehensive financial impact estimates yet. A price tag in the billions REACH would require the registration of more than 30,000 chemical substances used in manufacturing within 11 years for the stated purpose of protecting human and environmental health. The proposal resembles the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, which regulates pesticides in the United States. A November 2005 Government Accountability Office report said REACH would eliminate the distinction between new and existing chemicals and require chemical companies to submit certain basic information on chemical products produced over certain volumes. Specifically, REACH affects all chemicals manufactured in or imported into the European Union in quantities of 1,000 kilograms (2,204.6 pounds) or more. REACH's Article 23 requires all chemical companies doing business in Europe to submit testing data to the new European Chemicals Agency. If a substance has qualities deemed carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic, further testing must be conducted at a company's expensive on animals and results submitted to the agency for a safety review. Of 30,000 substances expected to come under regulation in 2010, 1,500 are estimated to have carcinogenic qualities, the European Union says. No one can say with certainty how much it will cost to register a substance. But the E.U.'s 2003 Extended
Re: [Biofuel] Industry Girds For Sprawling E.U. Regulatory Scheme
While many here is the USA cry excess government regulation, without considering that a good portion of the regulation is authored by those being regulated. I suspect the same is true in Europe, and the remainder of the World. Spin... Spin... Spin... Doug, N0LKK Kansas USA inc. A. Lawrence wrote: Some interesting takes - esp. the last comment about trusting the EU... would we rather trust a chemical mfr.?? Although this seems somewhat cumbersome, so are diseases and eaths caused by safe chemicals... safe according to the mfrs... DDT was the best thing ever for pests not so good for everything else though... anyway, I'm sure you get the idea... Won't be long and I'll become a Raging Grandpa grouch about all this crap... g ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Industry Girds For Sprawling E.U. Regulatory Scheme
http://www.precaution.org/lib/06/prn_industry_girds_for_reach.061013.htm Greenwire, October 13, 2006 Industry Girds For Sprawling E.U. Regulatory Scheme [Rachel's introduction: The chemical industry continues to oppose REACH, Europe's proposed new precautionary chemicals policy -- but the handwriting is on the wall. REACH is coming, in one form or another.] By Russell J. Dinnage A landmark European Commission plan for overhauling chemical regulations is on its way to becoming law. Five years in the making, REACH -- the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals Act -- is a 600-page tome that has been making the rounds in government offices and corporate headquarters throughout Europe, generating thousands of public comments for European Union officials to review. The proposal is on track to become law sometime next year. Some experts are questioning U.S. readiness for a such a sweeping proposal that figures to reshape the global regulatory landscape for chemical manufacturers and all businesses that use chemicals. Businesses in the United States are completely not focused on this topic, said Angela Logomasini, who tracks risk and environmental policy for the Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute. The reality of REACH is that it will affect everything in the business. From downstream manufacturers, importers, domestic users -- people are not aware that it could become a globally focused phenomenon. But it is not easy to assess REACH's effect on U.S. interests. There is, first of all, a lack of consensus about how deeply the law would dig into industry's bottom line. The Bush administration, for example, considers REACH a very important issue, but it has yet to produce an official evaluation of its potential economic impact on the U.S. chemical industry, said Matt Braud, spokesman for the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration. Nonetheless, the administration has a strong opinion on REACH. In our view, and as expressed by many other governments, the E.U.'s proposal remains overly expansive, burdensome and would be difficult to implement effectively, Braud said. We believe the E.U.'s stated objectives of protecting human health and the environment are worthy policy goals; however, achieving those goals must be applied in ways that are consistent with the E.U.'s obligations to its trading partners under the World Trade Organization. Small and mid-sized U.S. chemical companies are keenly aware of REACH and are actively preparing for its impacts, said Jim Cooper, a spokesman for the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association. The American Chemistry Council, which represents large companies, did not return calls for comment on REACH's potential financial effect, and DuPont Chemical Corp. spokesman Dan Turner said the company is examining REACH but it does not have any comprehensive financial impact estimates yet. A price tag in the billions REACH would require the registration of more than 30,000 chemical substances used in manufacturing within 11 years for the stated purpose of protecting human and environmental health. The proposal resembles the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, which regulates pesticides in the United States. A November 2005 Government Accountability Office report said REACH would eliminate the distinction between new and existing chemicals and require chemical companies to submit certain basic information on chemical products produced over certain volumes. Specifically, REACH affects all chemicals manufactured in or imported into the European Union in quantities of 1,000 kilograms (2,204.6 pounds) or more. REACH's Article 23 requires all chemical companies doing business in Europe to submit testing data to the new European Chemicals Agency. If a substance has qualities deemed carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic, further testing must be conducted at a company's expensive on animals and results submitted to the agency for a safety review. Of 30,000 substances expected to come under regulation in 2010, 1,500 are estimated to have carcinogenic qualities, the European Union says. No one can say with certainty how much it will cost to register a substance. But the E.U.'s 2003 Extended Impact Assessment estimates it would cost about $250,000 per chemical -- or $15 billion for the industry as a whole over the 11 to 15 years it is expected to take to fully implement the regulation. Another study -- E.U. 2004 REACH: the Impact of REACH -- puts the total industry testing cost at $3 billion and estimates that it will cost between $10,000 to $37,000 to register a single substance, depending on the size of the registration and whether animal testing is needed. And then there is a study by the German chemical industry association, BDI, predicting REACH will cause a 1.4 percent loss of production for German manufacturers and the loss of 150,000
