Dispatch: Over-REACH

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The European Chemicals Agency will expand its list of Substances of Very High Concern from the current 29 to a total of 135 by the year 2012, in accordance with Europe’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation.

“Those of us following the reform of the U.S.’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) should take note that this is the nature of regulation,” says Stier. “When you give an agency authority, it immediately wants to expand that authority. By expanding the list, they can claim that they’re protecting people more. Conversely, the list can never be shrunk. So as we reform our own chemical laws, we should be aware of the creep of regulation.”