Consumables

Industry Launches REACH Compliance Program for Suppliers

Friday 17. July 2009 - New Guidance on REACH Requirements for Substances in Articles published last week by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) provides the backdrop for Philips' new corporate REACH compliance program for all suppliers to Philips lighting, consumer lifestyle and healthcare businesses.

Starting from August 2009 the REACH Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) will be updated every six months and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) intends to add about 25 substances per year to the list. Suppliers to Philips need to join BOMcheck, the substances declarations web database developed by leading environmental consultants, ENVIRON.
The REACH regulation requires suppliers to inform Philips and other OEMs whether the parts they supply contain > 0.1% w/w of any of the substances on this list. The ECHA Guidance confirms that business suppliers are required to inform their customers “automatically i.e. directly after the substances are included in the Candidate List.” The Guidance also notes that “whenever standard information from suppliers is not sufficient to check compliance with REACH, companies have to obtain the necessary information by pro-active requests in the supply chain.”
“Philips has decided not to receive REACH compliance information individually from each of our suppliers each time a new list is published,” said Jan-Willem Scheijgrond, Senior Director Environment, Health & Safety at Philips Corporate. “Instead, we require all of our suppliers to comply with these REACH obligations by joining BOMcheck — the centralised, open-access substances declarations web database.”
The ECHA Guidance highlights that, “Supply chain communication is the most important and effective way of gathering the information needed to identify compliance obligations under REACH. In this regard, establishing communication standards for the supply chain is an important task for the private sector in order to facilitate the implementation of REACH.”
BOMcheck provides this communication standard. The industry-wide initiative is led by the European trade association COCIR and has been developed by ENVIRON.