Restriction on Mercury in Measuring Devices according to the REACH

REACH - is the European Community Regulation on chemicals and their safe use (EC 1907/2006). It deals with the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical substances. The law entered into force on 1 June 2007. 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 REACH Regulation places greater responsibility on industry to manage the risks from chemicals and to provide safety information on the substances. As a central point in the REACH system has the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) based in Helsinki, which manages the data required for operation of the system. The aim of this paper is to introduce the proposed restrictions (June 15th , 2010), which refers to the use of mercury in measuring devices, and how it is prepared by the European chemicals policy and directives - REACH. Furthermore, this work describes a reliable safe and technically and economically feasible alternatives for measuring devices containing mercury. The introduction of restrictions can reduce the amount of mercury in the EU market in the measuring equipment by about 57 tons..