Better Roads

January 2014

Better Roads Digital Magazine

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TransportationTalk Editorial Editor-At-Large: Tina Grady Barbaccia Editorial Director: Marcia Gruver Doyle Online Editor: Wayne Grayson The EU's REACH regs have implications for U.S. equipment market Online Managing Editor: Amanda Bayhi Production Editor: Lauren Heartsill Dowdle Editor Emeritus: Kirk Landers Truck Editor: Jack Roberts Construction Editors: Tom Jackson, Tom Kuennen, Dan Brown editorial@betterroads.com Design & Production Art Director: Sandy Turner, Jr. Production Designer: Timothy Smith Advertising Production Manager: Linda Hapner production@betterroads.com Construction Media Senior VP of Market Development, Construction Media: Dan Tidwell VP of Sales, Construction Media: Joe Donald sales@constructionmedia.com Corporate Chairman/CEO: Mike Reilly President: Brent Reilly Chief Process Officer: Shane Elmore Chief Administration Officer: David Wright Senior Vice President, Sales: Scott Miller Senior Vice President, Editorial and Research: Linda Longton Vice President of Events: Alan Sims Vice President, Audience Development: Stacy McCants Vice President, Digital Services: Nick Reid Director of Marketing: Julie Arsenault 3200 Rice Mine Rd NE Tuscaloosa, AL 35406 800-633-5953 randallreilly.com For change of address and other subscription inquiries, please contact: betterroads@halldata.com Better RoadsTM magazine, (ISSN 0006-0208) founded in 1931 by Alden F. Perrin, is published monthly by Randall-Reilly Publishing Company, LLC.© 2014. Executive and Administrative offices, 3200 Rice Mine Rd. N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Qualified subscriptions solicited exclusively from governmental road agencies, contractors, consultants, research organizations, and equipment and materials suppliers. Single copy price $5.00 in U.S. and Canada. Subscription rate for individuals qualified in U.S. and Canada $24.95. Foreign $105.00. Special group rates to companies qualified in quantities over five names. We assume no responsibility for the validity of claims of manufacturers in any advertisement or editorial product information or literature offered by them. Publisher reserves the right to refuse non-qualified subscriptions. Periodical circulation postage paid at Tuscaloosa, Alabama and additional entries. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner. For quality custom reprints, e-prints, and editorial copyright and licensing services please contact: Linda Hapner, (224) 723-5372 or reprints@betterroads.com. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to Better Roads, 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E.,  Tuscaloosa, AL  35406. E nforcement for the European Union's (EU) REACH – the Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisiation [sic] and Restriction of Chemicals – regulations began on June 1, 2007, to control chemical manufacturing. Under these new protocols, existing chemicals, when there is evidence of concern, are identified as Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC). These trigger immediate reporting requirements to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and then may be banned until safety is established. The SVHC list is continuously changing, with new substances added several times per year. More than 1,000 of these SVHCs are expected to be on the list by 2020. EU REACH also has a restrictions list that allows certain substances to be used only for specified purposes. ECHA provides and maintains IUCLID (International Uniform Chemical Information Database), a software application provided free that captures, stores, maintains and exchanges data on intrinsic and hazard properties of chemical substances. These regulations are far-reaching. As the SVHC list regularly changes, it could become a trade barrier by potentially forcing U.S. equipment manufacturers to redesign their products or be banned from the EU marketplace, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) EU REACH Equipment Brief. "In addition, as materials and substances are identified in the EU as SVHCs, this knowledge of their toxicity is now public information," says John Wagner, AEM director of materials management. "If these substances are used in construction projects, contractors may have potential legal liability for their impact." To ensure exports can continue, AEM suggests three important steps: Manufacturers need to become aware what substances are restricted, banned or require notification; identify the substance content of all materials used; and eliminate use of these chemicals through redesign. REACH is changing the regulatory environment and making it more onerous. Like Tier 4 regulations, these EU regulations may increase manufacturing costs, which will most certainly be passed on to the end-user. This will affect contractor costs and make everything more difficult and expensive to buy and use. We all want to protect the environment. But, we don't want to be overregulated where it's going to cost jobs and make it impossible to get the equipment we need. The repercussions from REACH are potentially more damaging than anyone has acknowledged. As the nation is recovering from the severe economic recession, we can't afford any impairment. (For a glossary of REACH terms, go to page 6 on aem.org/pdf/2013-10_EU-REACH-executive-brief.pdf.) Correction: In the December 2013 issue of Better Roads' "Transportation Talk," Gov. Bob McDonnell was misidentified as governor of Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Corbett is the current governor of Pennsylvania. McDonnell is the governor of Virginia. We apologize for the error. by Tina Grady Barbaccia, Editor-At-Large tinabarbaccia@gmail.com Better Roads January 2014 3

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