Greenpeace installs giant test tube at EU chemical industry meeting
The European Commission is currently preparing new chemicals legislation called REACH.
The proposals are
designed to clean up chemical production and use to ensure products are safer for the
environment and
human health. However the proposals have been fiercely attacked by the European chemicals industry.
Since the original proposals were put forward, the European chemicals industry has tried to argue that it will cost too much to to replace dangerous chemicals in products. It has been
forced to
reduce its earlier, absurd estimates and has agreed on a high-end figure estimated by the
EU - around
€7 billion over eleven years. This is about 0.1% of the European chemical industry's annual
turnover.
It is essential that industry undertakes the research and
development
necessary to make their products safe, and if this leads to a small short-term rise in costs
then this
merely illustrates how they have been evading their responsibilities.
There have also been several estimates of the possible economic benefits of REACH.
Studies have been produced which suggest that increased regulation in chemicals may produce
greater
innovation and a comparative advantage in the global market. Others have focussed on the
health costs
of hazardous chemicals. European Commission information suggests that allergies (in many
cases linked
to the chemicals which should be regulated) cost Europe €45 billion each year. Another
recent report
finds that the economic benefits from reduced health problems and corresponding
productivity will be
roughly ten times the estimated costs of making the changes. And that's without taking into account the potential environmental benefits of the REACH.
