REACH is a European Union regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals. It came into force on 1st June 2007 and replaced a number of European Directives and Regulations with a single legislation.
REACH put the emphasis on the importer, processor or manufacturer of goods to declare if the goods contain any Substances of Very High Concern (SVHCs).
There is a full list of SVHCs available from the European Chemical Agency at http://echa.europa.eu/candidate-list-table. The main chemical on this list that applies to Copely Developments Limited is Bis (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (Also known as DEHP or DOP). This is a very common plasticiser used to make PVC flexible and is used in a wide variety of applications from hoses to medical devices.
In February 2015 DOP reached its sunset date and could no longer be used in the manufacture of any PVC products (with the exception of some medical devices).
In order to ensure that Copely and its customers were not caught out by this change, we carried out extensive research and testing on all of the material we handled throughout 2014. As a result of this we no longer use DOP plasticisers in any of our PVC products since September 2014.
We are happy to fully certify all of our PVC products as SVHC-free and phthalate free.
We have also carried out significant testing on imported PVC hose products and have found them to contain further SVHC’s, restricted substances and extenders (such as paraffin) that tend to ‘leach out’ over time. The importer should be responsible for this, however we have found that the majority do not take this responsibility seriously!
If you want to ensure that you are getting a high quality product that complies with all current legislation then please contact Copely for your requirements.
