The impact of REACH on the environment and human health

The main aim of this study is to assess the impact on the environment and humans exposed via the environment (i.e. excluding direct consumer exposure and occupational exposure) as a result of releases of chemicals and to assess the possible long-term benefits of REACH in reducing such potential chemical threats. Three possible approaches have been identified and implemented. These are the willingness to pay (WTP) among the broad population for avoiding impacts of chemicals, the damage function approach based on past mistakes where an empirical relationship between damage and cost might be established, and the avoided or saved costs approach where costs of mitigating current pollution is estimated as the upper limit for the possible benefit of REACH.