Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

17.6.5
Child resistant fastenings, tactile 
warnings and other consumer protection 
measures – Regulation 11
CHIP 3 sets out special requirements for chemicals that 
are sold to the public.
Some have to be fi tted with a child-resistant closure 
to a laydown standard to prevent young children opening 
containers and swallowing the contents.
Some must have tactile danger warning to alert the 
blind and partially sighted to the danger. This is often a 
raised triangle.
17.6.6 Retention of Data – Regulation 12
Data used for classifi cation, labelling, child resistant fas-
teners and, for preparing the safety data sheet, must be 
kept for at least three years after the dangerous chem-
ical is supplied for the last time.
17.6.7
Chemical manufacture and storage – The 
European Commission’s New Chemical 
strategy. (REACH)
a) What is REACH?
REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation, and Author-
isation of Chemicals. It is the new EU Chemical legisla-
tion, which will come into force on 1 June 2007.
The Department of Environment, Food and Rural 
Affairs (Defra) is responsible for implementing this 
European Regulation in the UK.
In October 2006, Defra nominated HSE to be the UK 
Competent Authority for REACH, working closely with 
the Environment Agency, and other partners to manage 
certain key aspects of the REACH system in the UK.
REACH aims to make the people who place chemicals 
on the market (mainly manufacturers and importers) 
responsible for understanding and managing the risks 
associated with their use. REACH is aimed at simplifying 
the control of chemicals in the European marketplace. It 
replaces a patchwork of European Directives with a single 
system. Different types of chemicals are considered in 
different ways by the legislation, and some are exempt, 
because they are already covered by specifi c laws.
More detailed information about REACH can be 
found at the Defra REACH website, including impact 
assessment work at the national and Community 
levels, and consultations. A wide range of industry and 
commercial sources also offer commentary and advice 
regarding REACH.
The following is a brief background of REACH and 
summary of key themes.
b) Background
The European Commission’s (EC) White Paper of 2001 
on a ‘future chemical strategy’ proposed a system that 
requires chemicals manufactured in quantities of greater 
than 1 tonne to be ‘registered’, those manufactured in 
quantities greater than 100 tonnes to be ‘evaluated’, and 
certain substances of high concern (for example carcino-
genic, mutagenic and toxic to reproduction – CMR’s) to 
be ‘authorized’.
The EC adopted its proposal for a new scheme to 
manage the manufacture, importation and supply of 
chemicals in Europe on in October 2003. The proposal 
was then forwarded to the European Parliament and EU’s 
Council of Ministers for adoption under the co-decision 

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