How EU drive became toxic

Printing is all about ink. And, as the industry is so often reminded, many inks are made with harmful chemicals. As a result, the sector and its ink suppliers have to take care they comply with the EU’s new chemical control system REACH, which formally came into force on 1 June.

This is possibly the most complex industrial legislation ever approved by the EU – not an organisation known for administrative simplicity. Its aim is to protect EU citizens and the environment from harm caused by the use of chemicals.

As a result, inks are a crucial part of the REACH system. Under its terms, they are categorised as ‘preparations’ (“a mixture or solution composed of two or more substances”).

For print companies buying a preparation from a European manufacturer, there are no (immediate) obligations under REACH, aside from the obligatory safety data sheet. However, if buying a preparation from outside the EU, a print company would have to register all the components itself with the newly formed European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). This will be fine if the supplier is a large multinational – they can be relied upon to comply with REACH. But what if it is a small firm, based in India, say, supplying an unusual ink?

As regards ink manufacturers within Europe, there are a number of requirements. Manufacturers that buy a chemical component from a manufacturer in the European Economic Area (the EU, plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein), have in principle no obligations under REACH, other than to communicate to the supplier how you are using the substance.

But if you are a manufacturer and import a component from outside the EU, you must register that chemical. Also, manufacturers of a preparation that has been registered by another company have to make sure their use of the ink or other preparation is covered by the registration document.

Particularly vulnerable
The European printing ink manufacturing industry is particularly exposed to such demands under REACH.

And because the industry is unusually dependent on a large number of small suppliers for raw materials, which may be unwilling or unable to comply with the regulation’s demands, some ink ingredients may cease to be available in the future.

As a result, the sector began studying the impact of REACH seven years ago and published an impact assessment in November 2004 for the European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA). It suggested that REACH would cost the EU printing ink industry up to £450m (€660m), of which £320m would be in reformulation costs. It said this was because “many important raw materials will no longer be available in the future (and) the bulk of these costs will have to be borne around 10 years after the introduction of the REACH system.” However, the EuPIA report conclusions were not fully upheld by a subsequent study by consultants KPMG, which challenged many of the industry assumptions.

Flint Group SHEQ (safety, health, environment and quality) manager Silvio Bassi says raw material suppliers were indicating that there would be around a 10% increase in prices as a result of REACH, but that increases passed on to printers could be higher because of the need for printing ink companies to pre-register chemicals that suppliers were turning away from.

That said, Bassi, who coordinated a working group on REACH, says the group favoured the scheme even though it constituted a huge bureaucratic burden. “We have to think about re-formulation because if a supplier will not register a chemical, we have to change the formulation in order to find a new chemical as a substitute. We’ve asked all our suppliers to send us a list of the chemicals they intend to pre-register [which must be carried out by 1 December 2008] and register [for which a more relaxed timetable applies] but we’ve received only a few answers,” he said. If the raw material concerned was indispensable, and the supplier was not willing to pre-register, “we have to do this ourselves and this is not what we want. We’d prefer that the supplier register all chemicals,” says Bassi. In many cases, there would be no problem. With a fairly common chemical such as ethyl acetate, for instance, if one supplier won’t register, it’s very likely manufacturers will be able to find an alternative supplier that will. But if the supplier of a chemical or additive that was vital for imparting certain properties was not willing to register because of high costs or because printing inks were only a small segment of its business, “then we have to do it ourselves and this is another cost increase we have to pass on,” says Bassi.

Paul Hayden, national technical manager at Stehlin Hostag Ink UK, part of Germany’s Huber Group, says his company has started the massive task of pre-registering all of its chemicals. He says: “We think that there are no really horrendous chemicals, but that will only be borne out when registration starts.” As for enforced reformulation, he hopes Stehlin Hostag “doesn’t use many, if any, chemicals that are going to be withdrawn”.

Defining article
To some extent, the impact of REACH is difficult to quantify even now, as some key guidance is awaited from the European Commission. A crucial issue is ‘articles’, something defined in REACH as containing chemicals – but whose form or function is separate from such substances. Different rules apply to these than for preparations such as inks, and they would include products that are printed such as books. For printers, the issue is over what articles should be covered, and this is especially relevant for packaging printers.

Chemicals are covered under the following two sets of circumstances: if a chemical is present in those articles in quantities totalling more than one tonne per producer or importer per year; and “is intended to be released under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use”. Packaging is thrown away, and so it could be deemed to be ‘intentionally released’.

Also, there is a second formula, where registration is required if an article is deemed potentially of concern to health or the environment; and makes up 0.1%, or more, by weight of an article, as well as weighing more than one tonne given the amount imported or made annually by a company, regardless of its release. This is important, because given the toxicity of some ink ingredients – some of these chemicals could be deemed substances of concern.

So, what if the ‘article’ is a tub of margarine? The chances of any chemicals in the packaging making up more than 0.1% of the overall weight would be slight, and so it would be exempt. But if the margarine, the tub and a paper label were all considered separate articles, then the chemical might just make up 0.1% of the weight of the label and would be caught.

Fortunately, whatever the ruling on articles, all of this work does not have to be completed right away. Under REACH, a series of registration deadlines will roll out over the next 15 years (see box).

In the short term, preparation for pre-registration needs to be undertaken for the 1 December 2008 deadline. This involves the ECHA being given basic information about the products that will be registered, such as a definition of the substance, how much is produced or imported (roughly), and some contact details.

Another key date is 1 June 2009, when the second pillar of REACH, its special authorisation procedure saying how chemicals deemed particularly hazardous can or cannot be used, comes into force. This is when the ECHA makes its recommendations for substances that must be subject to a rigorous screening process. The agency is charged with refreshing this list at least every two years from this date.
Source: printweek