The EU REACH legislation came into force June 2007 and looks to become the most important legislation of the decade.

Harvey Stone, VP of Business Development and REACH expert at the Goodbye Chain Group sees REACH as the most significant product toxicity compliance issue of the next decade. "Because it requires companies to gather and communicate all kinds of full-disclosure substance information in regard to volumes, toxicity, suppliers and so on" says Stone," "REACH could lead to costly business disruption for companies that do not address the June 1 - Nov. 30 2008 pre-registration deadlines, as well as the subsequent registration, notification and authorization timetables.

Outside of the EU all manufacturers who export to the EU are potentially affected. Under certain conditions there are requirements to supply end users with information along with the product, as well the need to tell importers if any of a wide range of substances are in the products. Pre-registration starts on June 1st 2008 and ends on 1st December 2008. Companies exporting to the EU, and manufacturing in the EU need to know how they are impacted so they can act.

The legislation itself is 849 pages long and there is over 2000 pages of official Guidance already published. According to Gary Nevison, Legislation and Environmental Affairs Manager for electronics component supplier Farnell, "REACH is without doubt the most complex of the EU regulations published to date that impact our industry. Documents run into several thousand pages and many of the elements are difficult to understand."

To help manufacturers both in the EU and outside the EU RoHS-International has produced a set of Simplified Guidance Notes specifically for product exporters. Taking over 400hours to prepare, the Guidance Notes contain key information and very easy to follow action trees that detail the immediate steps that manufacturers both in the EU and exporters to the EU need to take for compliance with REACH.

 "The simple, straight forward guidance notes produced by RoHS International provide invaluable assistance to product manufacturers in obtaining a basic understanding of the regulations and how to prepare." says Nevison. "Condensing the relevant parts of this legislation into 29 pages is quite a feat. Much of the value of these Guidance Notes is in what is left out as well as what has been included" adds Nevison

RoHS-International's Simplified REACH Guidance Notes for Product Exporters are available for download at www.rohs-international.com/reach.