Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) is a piece of legislation in the European Union on chemical safety. It would eventually oblige companies producing more than 10 tonnes (metric tons) of a chemical (less in certain cases) to investigate the potential hazards to human health and to the environment. It would apply to all chemicals commercially available in the EU (approximately 30,000 compounds), in contrast to the US Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) which only applies to chemicals newly coming into use. The European Chemicals Agency manages the technical, scientific and administrative aspects of the REACH system.

It has already been significantly amended since the original version initiated by the European Commission in 2003. It passed the first reading in the European Parliament on 2005-11-17, and the Council of Ministers approved it on 2005-12-13 [BBC News Report]. The estimated cost of compliance is 2.3 billion euros (3.6 billion US dollars) over 11 years. However, there have been different studies on the estimated cost which vary considerably in the outcome.

The issue is an issue of health as well as the environment since it is aimed at the use and handling of substances which may be toxic to humans, the environment and to humans indirectly via the environment.

For example, the issue of using toxic substances in electronic devices has two implications: Firstly, toxic substances can leave the device during consumer use through the air and secondly, toxical substances can end up in the environment where they might not do harm to humans directly, but for example through the contamination of water with chemicals, these chemicals can enter the food chain through fish, e.g. accumulate (bioaccumulation) in the human body, reaching dangerous concentrations.

REACH has also attracted concern because of the potential for a very significant increase in animal testing under the proposal. On June 8, 2006 the proposal came under criticism from a group of nations including the United States, Australia, Brazil, Chile, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa and Thailand because the bill would hamper global trade due to the high cost of compliance.[U.S. Department of State]