How to implement REACH?

REACH is based on the principle (Art.1, §3) that manufacturers, importers, and downstream users must ensure that they produce, put on the market, or use substances, that have no harmful effects on human health or on the environment. This principle is applicable to substances in whatever size or form and for all their identified uses.

Gradual application from 2007 to 2017 these regulations concern 30,000 existing substances. It does not discriminate between substances according to the year of first placement on the market, but establishes registration criteria under the responsibility of manufacturers in terms of annual tonnage per company.