- Date 2021-02-17
In January 2021, the report "Socio-economic impacts of REACH authorisations - A meta-analysis of the state of play of applications for authorisation" by the European Chemical Agency (ECHA), which was prepared with the support of the Socio-economic Analysis Committee (SEAC) and the Risk Assessment Committee (RAC), was published. In this report, the socio-economic impacts of the list of substances requiring authorisation under REACH were examined in more detail. The list of substances requiring authorisation includes substances of very high concern (SVHC), which cannot be manufactured, used or placed on the market without authorisation. In the report, ECHA comes to the following conclusions, i.a.:
Since the introduction of the list of substances requiring authorisation under REACH, no applications for authorisation for use have been received for about half of the substances. Since these substances are no longer used in the EU, substitution of these substances is assumed.
For other substances, more than 200 applications for use have been received in some cases. The costs for companies in an average year for the authorised uses are estimated at € 7-9 million.
Substances of very high concern and substances requiring authorisation, which cannot be substituted for technical or economic reasons, can be authorised for use in certain cases. As an example, a societal benefit for the use of certain authorised reproductive toxicants and carcinogens could be estimated at €8.7 billion per year. This amount exceeds the associated estimated health risks by a factor of 20, which were estimated at €0.5 billion.
A negative impact of the continued use of authorised SVHCs is emissions into the environment. The restricted use conditions in the authorisation, set by the RAC and SEAC, are expected to reduce emissions of endocrine disrupting substances by 90% from several 10 million tonnes per year in 2020 to 0.7 million tonnes per year in 2032. The substances remaining in use would then deliver a societal benefit of €6.1 billion per year.
In addition, the dynamic effects to promote substitution were examined for the first time in the published report. The use of the first 24 SVHCs included in the authorisation list, whose authorisation phase has now expired, decreased by 97%, which is a clear indication that substitution has taken place.
It is recommended to shorten the review times reported by users and to monitor and regulate more closely the risks allowed under an authorised use.
The developments observed in the report support the decisions of ECHA, which, with the introduction of the authorisation list under REACH, is driving substitution of substances of very high concern, while at the same time maintaining the competitiveness of companies in the EU.