Complying with the EU's Reach Directive does not seem to be a problem for big enterprises. Smaller companies, however, are waiting until the last minute and some may even stop exporting to the EU altogether. REACH Directive restricts and limits the presence of numerous chemicals, including phthalates and lead. The former is a plasticizer said to be a hormone disrupter, and cause cancer and birth defects. Lead is used widely in many products, including paint, plastic, ceramics, textiles and garments. It is also said to cause cancer, and can damage the central nervous and immune systems. REACH stipulates phthalate and lead content should not exceed 0.1ppm and 1.0ppm per product, respectively.

The new regulation puts the responsibility on chemical producers to provide a wide variety of information on safety, including toxicity, carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, environmental fate, and other data that must be “robust” and often follow good laboratory practices (“GLP”) standards. The EU has created a new European Chemicals Agency to work in tandem with Member States to receive and evaluate the data submitted by chemicals manufacturers. The aim of REACH is to improve the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the intrinsic properties of chemical substances. At the same time, REACH aims to enhance innovation and competitiveness of the EU chemicals industry. The benefits of the REACH system will come gradually, as more and more substances are phased into REACH. The REACH Directive places greater responsibility on industry to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances.