Customer information on REACH On June 1st 2007 the European Directive (as amended on May 29th 2007 L136/3 official journal of the European Communities) for Registration Evaluation Authorisation of Chemicals, in short REACH, became effective. Thus a new Europe-wide law on chemicals that not only places the responsibility for the safe handling of chemicals on manufacturers and importers, but also in the further supply chain on the downstream user - and except the end user - on each member of the supply chain. Since introduction of REACH Rittal assumes responsibility for this obligation. A central requirement of the REACH Directive is the reliable transfer of relevant information within the supply chain, to the suppliers (upstream, Article 33) as well as to the customers (downstream, Article 31,32). For this reason Rittal has asked all relevant chemical suppliers concerned for pre-registration of information. Since most of our suppliers, like Rittal itself, are either downstream users or traders and therefore ask the upstream suppliers for a pre-registration of relevant chemicals, we do not have any final statements at the moment. We have taken all necessary organisational measures in order to advise our suppliers of their obligation to pre-register. In the course of our supplier qualification we will continue to check the implementation. We will make available the safety data sheets for the hazardous substances supplied by Rittal to our customers. We would like to ask you as our customer, to compare the applications stated in the respective safety data sheet with the intended application and to inform us immediately when there is a difference between intended and stated application. Should you have any new information on hazardous properties or further information that can put the suitability of the risk management measures stated in the safety data sheet into question please inform us immediately so that we can pass the information upstream in our supply chain. We would like to point out that the pre-registration period will be from June 1st, 2008 to December 31st, 2008 and that RITTAL did not make a pre-registration due to our position in the supply chain. However, the above mentioned obligatory information will last beyond this period. Please understand that we answer questionnaires with this customer information. |
