The UK REACH regulation was introduced with the aim of reducing the risks posed by chemicals and ensuring their safe use within the UK. The main purposes of UK REACH are:

 

1. Protecting human health: UK REACH aims to protect human health from the potential risks posed by chemicals, by ensuring that new and existing chemicals used in the UK are thoroughly assessed for their safety.

 

2. Preserving the environment: UK REACH also aims to protect the environment from the risks associated with chemical substances. By assessing the potential environmental impact of chemicals and placing restrictions on their use when necessary, UK REACH helps to minimize the impact of chemicals on the environment.

 

3. Enhancing the competitiveness of UK businesses: UK REACH aims to create a level playing field for businesses operating in the UK by ensuring that they all have to comply with the same regulations. This can help to reduce regulatory burdens on businesses and increase their competitiveness.

 

4. Ensuring the free movement of chemicals: UK REACH is designed to ensure that chemicals can continue to be traded between the UK and the EU after Brexit, by aligning the UK's chemical regulations with those of the EU to a certain extent.

 

Overall, UK REACH seeks to ensure a high level of protection for human health and the environment while facilitating the use of chemicals in a way that supports innovation and competitiveness.

 

Ensure that chemicals are used in a way that protects both human health and the environment, hold manufacturers and importers of chemicals accountable for understanding and managing the risks associated with their use, and encourage the use of alternative methods for determining whether a substance is hazardous, such as quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) and read across.