The chemical industry is scrambling to comply with a sweeping new European Union law requiring manufacturers to provide detailed information about their products and their effects on the environment and health.
"You have a very dramatic reform in chemical policy taking place in the seat of the largest proportion of the global chemical market," said Richard Denison, senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group. "That is going to have a huge impact on the global chemical arena."
The law -- Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals, or REACH -- was enacted last year, and its requirements are just starting to affect European chemical manufacturers and importers. What happens in Europe is important because the continent's chemical trade accounts for about 40 percent of the global market, with 27 countries and nearly half a billion people.
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