Nearly 3,000 Substances Registered by REACH Deadline.

REACH passed its second registration deadline on May 31, with over 9,000 dossiers for almost 3,000 “phase-in” substances submitted to the European Chemicals Agency (“ECHA”). The deadline applies to those substances which have long been on the European market and which are manufactured or imported in the EU at a rate ranging from 100 to 1,000 tons per year. 2,344 of the substances have already been successfully registered, while pending cases are mostly awaiting collection of registration fees. Substances were registered by 3,215 companies, with 82% of substances registered as joint submissions.

Chemical Watch (sub. req’d) quotes Christel Musset, director of registration at ECHA, as noting discrepancies between the final number of registrations and the projected number as reported in a 2011 survey. The survey found that industry intended to register 3,103 substances in 2013, but 984 registrations were not pursued and a different set of 804 substances were registered. Musset said ECHA would investigate and determine “the reason for non-registration of those [984] substances.”

ECHA’s next steps will be to evaluate all testing proposals as well as 5% of dossiers in each tonnage band by June 2016.

More detailed statistics and other non-confidential information on the registration submissions will be available on ECHA’s website after all the dossiers are processed, which the agency projects will be in September. The final REACH deadline, for substances made or imported in the EU at a minimum of 1 ton per year, is scheduled for May 31, 2018.

Chemical Watch reports the chemical industry’s reaction to the deadline as “mixed” (sub. req’d). Industry representatives voiced general support for the REACH program, while also describing it as particularly burdensome for the growing portion of registrants that are small- and medium-sized businesses.