Dec 19 2006
The new European chemical legislation REACH was recently approved. BSEF would like to clarify the status regarding Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs) and REACH.
The REACH legislative text does not refer to specific chemicals or families of chemicals. Instead, REACH sets up a mechanism by which EU regulators decide, after due consideration of the scientific data generated, whether any substance should be approved or restricted for certain uses. As such, at this time, it is not possible to predict the outcome of future scientific testing under REACH for any substance, including BFRs, and it would be mere speculation to do so.
As is the case for all chemicals, BFRs will have to be registered under REACH so that they can be placed on the EU market. The main commercial BFRs in use (Deca-BDE, TBBPA, HBCD) have already been subject to advanced testing under EU risk assessments, so the evaluation work required under REACH has, in large part, already been carried out. For example, an extensive 10-year risk assessment has been completed for Deca-BDE. This programme did not identify any risks or the need for further regulation on the use of Deca-BDE. As such, Deca-BDE is essentially REACHcompliant in advance of REACH's entry into force.
The main commercial BFRs represent some of the most tested chemicals used in Europe and worldwide. BFRs are therefore well prepared to meet REACH's increased requirements for scientific data.