BASF REACH Prereg Tops 40K

LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany—BASF submitted more than 40,000 preregistrations with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) under the REACH regulation prior to the Dec. 1, 2008 deadline. This included 15,000 preregistrations for products subject to REACH reimport regs. BASF noted it is now working with ECHA on addressing certain technical details associated with implementation of the REACH protocol, and turning its attention to using tools—such as the electronic portal SIEFreach—that will ease sharing of information on preregistered substances. The company estimates implementing REACH will cost up to 550 million Euros (US$696 million) by final implementation in 2018.