What is REACH?

REACH is a significant new piece of European legislation. The acronym stands for:

Registration
Evaluation
Authorisation
and restriction of Chemicals
 
The new regulation replaces numerous European Union Directives and regulations and places responsibility on the chemicals industry to demonstrate the safety of its products.

Approximately 30,000 chemicals will have to be registered in an 11-year period following the legislation's enactment on 1 June 2007.

The European Commission believes REACH will deliver significant benefits by:

• Providing a high level of protection to human health and the environment
• Fostering innovation within the EU chemicals industry and ensuring high safety standards for its products
• Providing a single EU regulatory system with a streamlined decision-making process and clear timelines
   

Shell Lubricants supports the underlying goals of REACH, which include placing greater responsibility on industry to manage the risks that chemicals may pose to health and the environment. This is consistent with our own commitment to promote the responsible production, use and handling of the products we make.
We have also been actively engaged for several years, principally through CONCAWE (Conservation of Clean Air & Water in Europe), in making our position on REACH known to the European Community. We also continue to work with industry colleagues to develop implementation guidelines for the industry.

Implementation and compliance with REACH is currently a key priority for Shell Lubricants companies.  This is including coordinating closely with our customers and suppliers to gather all of the required information on the products we sell and those we buy.  
 
REACH Status
To meet the REACH legislation requirements, Shell lubricants companies have completed the registration of substances manufactured and/or imported at >1000 tpa.

Shell lubricants product inventory - REACH status