1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,320
Cosentina, a small town nestled in the hills between Valencia and Alicante, provides a

2
00:00:06,320 --> 00:00:10,220
poignant reminder of the potential dangers of the chemicals we take for granted in our

3
00:00:10,220 --> 00:00:15,760
everyday lives. In 1992, a textile company called Ardestil instructed its workers to

4
00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:20,800
spray a dye stuff, which was designed to be applied by a roller. This may sound like a

5
00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:26,060
minor departure from normal practice, but it had disastrous consequences. When the workers

6
00:00:26,060 --> 00:00:31,700
in this factory sprayed the dye, its particles filled the air like fog. Six young employees

7
00:00:31,700 --> 00:00:37,940
later died from having inhaled the toxic substance, and 80 more contracted serious lung diseases.

8
00:00:37,940 --> 00:00:42,180
One of the innocent victims was the daughter of Amparo Pascual, who now acts as spokeswoman

9
00:00:42,180 --> 00:00:44,180
for the survivors of the accident.

10
00:00:44,180 --> 00:00:58,580
In 2003, a Spanish court ruled that Ardestil had used dangerous chemicals in its factory

11
00:00:58,580 --> 00:01:02,820
and had failed to show its workers how to handle them. In addition, it concluded that

12
00:01:02,820 --> 00:01:07,500
the serious lung damage suffered by the workers was directly related to the lack of preventative

13
00:01:07,500 --> 00:01:13,500
measures and exposure to a cocktail of chemicals. Pascual campaigns with other victims and relatives

14
00:01:14,100 --> 00:01:21,100
such as Chelo Ragues to prevent a repeat of the Ardestil tragedy.

15
00:01:36,100 --> 00:01:40,100
Ragues knows all too well about the effects of exposing youngsters to toxic chemicals.

16
00:01:40,700 --> 00:01:46,060
Her 18 and 20-year-old daughters died from inhaling poisonous fumes in the Ardestil company.

17
00:01:46,060 --> 00:01:50,460
She now devotes her life to fighting for justice for the victims of the accident and for tighter

18
00:01:50,460 --> 00:01:57,460
controls on dangerous chemicals.

19
00:02:02,500 --> 00:02:07,460
This is precisely what a new EU chemicals regulation known as REACH aims to do. If the

20
00:02:07,460 --> 00:02:12,020
law had been in place in the early 1990s, data on the dangerous substances contained

21
00:02:12,020 --> 00:02:15,580
in the dye would have been available, along with advice on whether it could be sprayed

22
00:02:15,580 --> 00:02:20,460
or not. REACH will help prevent similar cases from happening elsewhere in Europe where dangerous

23
00:02:20,460 --> 00:02:25,620
chemicals are currently being used in factories and other industries.

24
00:02:25,620 --> 00:02:30,200
The Spanish textile industry has come a long way since the Ardestil disaster. At this Madrid

25
00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:34,780
fashion show, organized by Greenpeace and a handful of young Spanish designers, none

26
00:02:34,780 --> 00:02:39,300
of the clothes was produced using any of six highly toxic chemicals otherwise frequently

27
00:02:39,300 --> 00:02:43,820
used in textiles.

28
00:02:43,820 --> 00:02:49,500
Spanish clothing giant Mango, which has over 900 shops in 83 countries, supports the campaign

29
00:02:49,500 --> 00:02:53,800
to replace hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives. Along with other leading companies

30
00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:58,860
such as Adidas, Nokia, Dell and Ikea, it has made a pledge to phase out six of the most

31
00:02:58,860 --> 00:03:03,860
dangerous chemicals used in its products.

32
00:03:03,860 --> 00:03:10,860
Substituting dangerous chemicals with less hazardous ones is at the heart of the REACH

33
00:03:17,980 --> 00:03:23,260
regulation. Under the new law, uses of substances of very high concern will have to be authorized,

34
00:03:23,260 --> 00:03:28,220
and eventually these chemicals will be phased out and replaced by safer alternatives. Mango,

35
00:03:28,220 --> 00:03:32,380
which supports REACH, believes its policy of phasing out toxic chemicals will not lead

36
00:03:32,380 --> 00:03:36,840
to higher costs for shoppers. Studies carried out for the European Commission also show

37
00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:41,060
the benefits for human health, dwarfing the cost to industry by a ratio of almost ten

38
00:03:41,060 --> 00:03:42,660
to one.

39
00:03:42,660 --> 00:03:49,660
The medical expenses for chemicals-related diseases will be less. Medicines will not

40
00:03:53,300 --> 00:04:00,300
be needed. We shall not lose working hours, and productivity will be better. So there

41
00:04:02,420 --> 00:04:09,420
is no doubt that the overall benefits of REACH will by far outweigh the cost to the industry.

42
00:04:10,780 --> 00:04:15,260
The chemicals industry is the third largest manufacturing sector in the EU, employing

43
00:04:15,260 --> 00:04:20,700
1.9 million people in 31,000 companies. But in recent years, its reputation has suffered

44
00:04:20,700 --> 00:04:25,240
as more and more studies have linked hazardous chemicals to falling sperm counts, increases

45
00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:29,700
in breast and testicular cancer, and a host of environmental problems such as soil and

46
00:04:29,740 --> 00:04:33,060
water pollution and the thinning of the ozone layer.

47
00:04:33,060 --> 00:04:40,060
It's true that the image of the chemical industry is not ranking first in public opinions, because

48
00:04:40,460 --> 00:04:46,300
there are fears about chemicals, about the hazards. So if we can demonstrate through

49
00:04:46,300 --> 00:04:53,300
REACH that a well-documented dossier about hazard exposure and risk, and proper risk

50
00:04:54,300 --> 00:05:01,300
management is in place or is improved, we can indeed enhance the confidence in chemicals.

51
00:05:04,860 --> 00:05:09,300
Under REACH, which will replace 40 pieces of existing EU legislation, companies will

52
00:05:09,300 --> 00:05:14,500
have to show that the substances they use or sell are safe. They will also have to provide

53
00:05:14,500 --> 00:05:19,300
a new EU chemicals agency in Helsinki with data on the properties of the substances they

54
00:05:19,340 --> 00:05:24,260
manufacture or import, information which will be provided to other companies downstream

55
00:05:24,260 --> 00:05:29,660
in the supply chain and available to the public on the internet.

56
00:05:29,660 --> 00:05:34,340
We need chemicals. After all, almost everything we use in our daily life is made from, or

57
00:05:34,340 --> 00:05:36,340
contains them.

58
00:05:36,340 --> 00:05:43,340
When we think about chemical pollution, we think about big smokestacks, polluted smokestacks,

59
00:05:43,380 --> 00:05:49,740
and chemical factories exploding. But unfortunately, a lot of the exposure comes also from the

60
00:05:49,740 --> 00:05:56,380
consumer products that we bring home. The pyjamas, the perfumes that we wear, the laptops

61
00:05:56,380 --> 00:06:03,380
that we have to work with, and many of them release hazardous chemicals into the environment.

62
00:06:03,860 --> 00:06:08,660
The problem, as this website created by the European Consumers' Organization, BEUC, shows,

63
00:06:08,660 --> 00:06:12,740
is that we are often unaware of the potentially dangerous chemicals found in the most banal

64
00:06:12,780 --> 00:06:18,420
household items. Soaps may contain parabens, which interfere with the hormonal system,

65
00:06:18,420 --> 00:06:23,140
and towels might contain formaldehyde, which has been classified as carcinogenic, poisonous,

66
00:06:23,140 --> 00:06:27,420
and corrosive. Washing-up liquids contain a cocktail of chemicals which can irritate

67
00:06:27,420 --> 00:06:32,580
the eyes, throat, and lungs. Bedsheets may contain formaldehyde, and even traces of the

68
00:06:32,580 --> 00:06:38,380
banned pesticide DDT. And although a dangerous softening agent that causes development problems

69
00:06:38,380 --> 00:06:44,540
has been removed from PVC baby toys, other PVC items may still contain it. Most consumers

70
00:06:44,540 --> 00:06:48,740
believe that whatever is on the market must be safe for use, and they expect industry

71
00:06:48,740 --> 00:06:54,020
and authorities to ensure that for them. The problem is that 99% of the chemicals used

72
00:06:54,020 --> 00:06:59,660
in everyday products have never been tested. With so little information available, no wonder

73
00:06:59,660 --> 00:07:03,660
shoppers at this supermarket outside Brussels are anxious about what chemicals are in the

74
00:07:03,660 --> 00:07:07,740
products they buy, and the effects of these substances on them and their children.

75
00:07:34,660 --> 00:07:42,460
Reach won't impose any new labelling requirements on manufacturers, but consumers will, for

76
00:07:42,460 --> 00:07:46,100
the first time, be able to shop safe in the knowledge that the chemicals in the products

77
00:07:46,100 --> 00:07:51,020
they buy have been tested and labelled accordingly, and that the most dangerous substances have

78
00:07:51,020 --> 00:07:55,700
either been banned or will be progressively substituted by safer alternatives. Under the

79
00:07:55,700 --> 00:08:01,260
new regulation, better human health, a safer environment, and a more sustainable European

80
00:08:01,260 --> 00:08:03,780
chemical industry are all within our reach.