Useful definition

REACH : Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of CHemicals.

These regulations came about as a result of a co-decision process, involving the European Parliament and the European Council.

It was adopted by the council on 18 December 2006, appeared in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) on 30/12/2006, and came into force on 1 June 2007.

Why are such regulations needed?

Following the industrial revolution after the end of the Second World War, huge advances were made in the chemical industry, with the arrival of plastic, ultra-effective cleaning products and everything that has provided the people of today with an improved standard of living.

However, the appearance of some illnesses that did not exist previously (for example: lung cancers caused by asbestos, etc.), led doctors to take a closer look at these cases. The outcome was that these "wonderful" everyday products were found to be dangerous to health.

As illnesses had been caused, the health authorities decided to take action: dangerous substances must be eliminated and replaced by inert or virtually harmless substances.

REACH principles and objectives

The REACH principles are :

• To establish a high level of protection for human health and the environment,
• To promote the free circulation of substances on the internal market,
• To enhance competitiveness and innovation.

The aim of the REACH regulations is to :

• To deal with the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemical substances known as SVHC (Substances of Very High Concern)
• To reduce the risks associated with the use of chemicals which are harmful to human health.
• To enhance performance levels and competitiveness between the chemical industries.

Objectives and commitment of Crouzet Automatismes

Enhancing competitiveness and innovation means having an excellent knowledge of our products and the associated risks. It also means ensuring that the chemical substances to be prohibited are replaced by new products which are less hazardous for those handling them and for consumers.

Crouzet Automatismes therefore undertakes to:

• Inform its customers of the SVHC content as soon as it is above 0.1% (art. 33 of the REACH regulations)
• Allocate the necessary resources to the replacement of SVHC by inert chemical substances.
• Ensure it complies with the REACH regulations. 

The company has the following objectives :

• To reduce the risks associated with SVHC while ensuring our products are of excellent quality
• To provide SVHC information for each of our products on our website.

Text of article 33 of the REACh regulations
Duty to communicate information on the substances in articles
1. Any supplier of an article containing a substance  […] in a concentration
above 0.1% weight by weight (w/w), shall provide the recipient of the article with sufficient information,
available to the supplier, to allow safe use of the article including,
as a minimum, the name of that substance.
2. On request by a consumer any supplier of an article containing a substance
[…] in a concentration above 0.1% weight by weight (w/w), shall provide the
consumer with sufficient information, available to the supplier, to allow safe use of the article
including, as a minimum, the name of that substance.