letter to the editor from Richard Corbett MEP

8 November 2005

Aire & Valley Target

Sir,

I thank Linda Parker (letters 3rd November) for raising her concerns over the EU Commission's legislative proposal for the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, known as REACH. It is an issue on which I have received very many letters and emails.

As a member of the all party Animal Welfare Inter-Group in the European Parliament, I share the concerns raised.

The EU Commission's legislative proposal for the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, known as REACH, brings over 30,000 chemicals manufactured, in quantities over a tonne, under the scope of a regulatory framework for the first time. Although these chemicals are widely used, very little is known about their potentially hazardous properties or what risks they pose.

Labour MEPs and the UK Government are strong supporters of the overall objectives of REACH to protect human health and the environment. As a Labour MEP I am committed to increasing knowledge about potentially hazardous chemicals through streamlined and workable legislation that will minimise animal testing.

With REACH, vertebrate animal testing should be kept to the minimum necessary to ensure that sufficient information is available for decision-making on health and environmental protection. This can be achieved by structuring the required information packages for substances to require the right level and kind of data, ensuring wide-spread data sharing between companies, and using validated non-animal tests where available.

The UK is proposing that a system of 'one substance, one registration' forms part of REACH. 'One substance, one registration' will ensure that only one registration package is put forward by all manufacturers and importers who produce the same substance. It includes a workable mechanism that will encourage the sharing of existing test data, thereby reducing vertebrate animal testing to an absolute minimum.

Please be assured that I will be following the proposal very carefully, and will work to ensure that any animal testing which is necessary to identify chemicals hazardous to human health and the environment, is indeed kept to an absolute minimum.

Richard Corbett
Labour MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber