The Hindu Business Line : Chemical dyestuffs to come under EU scanner

REACH norms
REACH standing for `registration, evaluation, authorisation of chemicals' will compel the individual manufacturers of chemical dyes of specific volumes or their importers within Europe to register with the European Chemical Agency
About 1,200 chemical formulation may qualify under `persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic' segment to be published as the REACH's candidate chemicals
European Council is expected to accept draft some time early 2007

Coimbatore , July 6

Chemical dyes that lend hues of colours on the textile goods that are shipped out will now come under the scanner of the European Union's new regulatory framework on safe management of chemicals set to come into existence from next year under one of the Union's four environmental protection directives, REACH.

REACH standing for `registration, evaluation, authorisation of chemicals' will cover all chemicals including the dyes used in textiles and it is to become as a Central law in the EU by early next year. REACH will compel the individual manufacturers of chemical dyes of specific volumes or their importers within Europe to register with the European Chemical Agency, the central authority created for implementing REACH law, by giving out all information on the components of the chemicals with their toxic levels and the eventual process of their management.

Candidate chemicals

The first regulatory frame work for REACH will, to start with, bring in a mandatory registration norm for those chemicals carrying components of `persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic' characteristics. About 1,200 chemical formulation may qualify under this segment to be published as the REACH's `candidate chemicals'. Well, one may be tempted to ask as to how the registration of the manufacturers or their importers inside the Europe will affect the exporter of textile products from India.

REACH legislative provision will also seek information on the chemical dyes found embedded in the fabrics/garments exported to EU as to whether these chemical dyes are registered with the central agency. This would indirectly pressure the dye manufacturers to mandatorily pass on the product registration information to the textile suppliers using their dyes forcing the latter to shun the chemicals if they are non-REACH compliant, according to Mr K.P. Nyati, Principal Advisor of the Confederation of Indian Industry's Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development.

CII in partnership with the Network for Preventive Environmental Management (NetPEM), a Nagpur-based public trust, forms part of the REACH implementation project consortium for India. Co-financed by the European Community, REACH project is spearheaded by the International Council of Swedish Industry or the `Naringslivets Internationella Rad' (NIR).

Mr Shisher Kumra, project manager of NIR who was here to participate along with Mr Nyati in a awareness campaign on the implications of `REACH' on India's textile/dye industries arranged by the CII, Coimbatore, told Business Line that the technical draft of REACH is already completed and the second reading of the legislation would be gone through by November before being sent to the European Council which is expected to accept its enactment some time early 2007.

The time frame for registration is linked to the size of the chemical players as single manufacturer/importer to be covered under the legislation. While those handling 1,000 tonnes and above production will have a three time for registration and evaluation processes to complete, the chemical producers of 100 tonnes and above per annum would get six years registration/evaluation process and the remaining would get the 11-year time-frame making the whole process to be in place by 2015.

The objective of the REACH is aimed at safe management of chemicals and chemical manufacturers/trade the target groups, textile companies from India would feel the impact widely due to the element of the embedded chemical dyes in the fabrics/garments too attracting the REACH legislation.

More Stories on : Textiles | Exports & Imports | Environment | Dyes & Pigments | Chemicals

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