After 4 ½ years of work on the information obligations according to REACH Art. 33, the AskREACH consortium has reported on its experiences in a letter to the EU Commission. The letter is accompanied by a non-exhaustive list of policy options that could help to improve the current situation.

The LIFE AskREACH project has invested a great deal of effort into the development and promotion of IT tools to facilitate communications about SVHCs along the supply chain as well as between suppliers and consumers. Although several surveys have shown that consumers are deeply concerned about the potential negative impact of chemicals in articles, the numbers of SVHC requests submitted by consumers are still very low. The positive effects of Article 33 intended by the legislators are therefore not being realised. The experience gained in LIFE AskREACH suggests that the current regulatory structure is a major cause of this deficiency.

More information are available on the AskREACH website.