REACH

REACH is a European Union regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals. It came into force on 1st June 2007 and replaced a number of European Directives and Regulations with a single system.

The REACH process is controlled within Europe by the European Chemical Hazards Agency (ECHA) the primary intention of REACH is to standardise substance classifications across Europe (“One substance One Classification”) and its aims are:

• To provide a high level of protection of human health and the environment from the use of chemicals.
• To make the people who place chemicals on the market (manufacturers and importers) responsible for understanding and managing the risks associated with their use.
• To allow the free movement of substances on the EU market.

The REACH regulations are complex and affect all manufacturers, importers and users of substances within the European Union. The successful implementation of REACH requires a joint effort and commitment between all parties within the supply chain.

REACH places a responsibility on manufacturers and importers of substances within the EU to evaluate the hazards of substances and determine any harm to human health and or the environment.  The information from these evaluations allows the users of substances to manage any risks, thereby protecting human health and the environment.

At LSM we are fully committed to meet our legal obligations under REACH and in 2010 we successfully registered all of our high volume substances (above 1000 tonnes manufactured or imported). We have now commenced preparing our registrations for June 2013 and we are also considering our registrations for 2018. We are actively involved in meetings within the metals industry and other substance manufacturers or importers to ensure that these registrations are successful.

As a downstream user of our products we can assure you that the substances they contain will be registered, either by ourselves or by our suppliers, in line with the REACH regulation deadlines.

Our overall objectives are to ensure that the supply chain for LSM products is maintained and ensure adequate information is included on Material Safety Data Sheets for the safe use of our products.