Fashion giant H&M Group has sent a letter to EU authorities calling for more progressive chemicals legislation, particularly in relation to the upcoming revision of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. The paper contains three demands to improve chemicals policy in the European Union: An ambitious revision of REACH, the integration of the hazard-based approach and the improvement of transparency of chemicals.
As reported in December last year, H&M and 21 other companies have already urged EU president Ursula von der Leyen to vote for an ambitious and quick revision of the regulation. The company, which also publishes its own RSL online, advocates for a final revision by June 2023. Besides asking for more speed, the letter asks for a restriction of chemicals based on their hazards rather than on exposure risk and urges the EU to improve chemical transparency in the next REACH regulation – a measure that would help to phase out certain chemicals that are currently not easy to track down due to a lack of mandatory information.
The current REACH regulation was adopted in 2006, and even if widely used chemical substances have since been identified as harmful, its revision is planned for Q4, 2023, after more than one year of delay. Experts at Euractiv fear that the EU Commission (led by German-born von der Leyen) will avoid further turmoil and water down the proposal to protect the chemical industry – which accounts for 10 percent of the German economy – as major German chemical companies like BASF struggle with rising gas and electricity costs and are concerned about further restrictions.
REACH applies to all chemical substances: both those used in industrial processes and those found in everyday life, for example, in cleaning agents, paints, and products such as clothing or shoes. Therefore, the regulation has an impact on most companies throughout the EU.
