Benefit-Cost Analysis in EU Chemicals Legislation: Experiences from over 100 REACH Applications for Authorisation

Georgiou, Stavros; Rheinberger, Christoph M.; Vainio, Matti

doi:10.1017/bca.2018.10

Cited by 9 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Considering that, complementary to REACH authorisations, restriction procedures are a key regulatory instrument towards a safe use of chemicals in Europe and beyond (Coria 2018;Georgiou et al 2018), the function of SEA as a decision-support tool could and should be strengthened. First, attention should be given to improving the quality of impact assessments in an SEA.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-economic analysis in REACH restriction dossiers for chemicals management: A critical review

Gabbert

Hilber

2019

Ambio

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This paper offers a critical review of socioeconomic analysis (SEA) in Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) restriction dossiers. We examine the conceptual setup of SEA and identify the methods used for impact assessment. Moreover, we analyse the outcomes of quantitative impact assessment across restriction dossiers and substance groups. We find that impact assessment has largely focused on economic and health impacts. Environmental, social, wider economic and distributional impacts have either been evaluated qualitatively or not at all. While this can be explained by the specific scope of the proposed restriction or by lacking data, we also observe a lack of approaches for environmental and health impact assessment. This underlines the need to develop integrated methods that transform information about chemical effects and risks into impacts and, ultimately, into benefits and damages. Furthermore, to strengthen the function of SEA as decision-support tool in REACH restriction procedures, a comparative SEA of at least two alternative restriction options should be the default. Keywords Impact assessment Á REACH Á Regulation Á Restriction of chemicals Á Risk management Á Socioeconomic analysis Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-economic analysis in REACH restriction dossiers for chemicals management: A critical review

Gabbert

Hilber

2019

Ambio

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“…Existing estimates regarding the epidemiological effects of chemicals (or their reduction) exhibit large confidence intervals. In addition, many potential human health aspects of chemicals, such as, multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), are still highly uncertain (e.g., Rogers, 2014;Georgiou et al, 2018). In order to account for these multiple uncertainties and the lack of data, the benefits and costs of the REACH system are established on the basis of a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods.…”

Section: Bca -The Methodological Framework For the Reach Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefits and Costs of Regulating and Restricting Chemicals: The European Union’s REACH System and Its Effects on the Austrian Economy

Getzner¹,

Schulz-Zak²

2018

J. Benefit Cost Anal.

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The European Union’s regulation for chemical safety (REACH) addresses the registration, evaluation, assessment, and consequent authorization (or restriction) of chemicals which are potentially harmful for both public health and the environment. The current study aims at ascertaining the costs and benefits of the REACH framework for the Austrian economy under major uncertainties, and draws on a wide range of databases on public and workplace health, chemical accidents in households, and the potential environmental impacts of harmful chemicals.The uncertainties in the REACH system assessments of the effects of chemicals on health lie not only in the insufficiency of scientific evidence but also in the economic evaluation of effects on health, especially in regard to the value of statistical life (VSL), and the economic value of diseases attributed to chemicals.This benefit-cost analysis (BCA) of the REACH system in Austria therefore takes into account these manifold uncertainties by designing a conservative baseline scenario and by varying all determinants in comprehensive sensitivity analyses. Projected over a period of about 30 years, this paper provides evidence that the REACH system most probably leads to net benefits for the Austrian economy (benefit-cost ratio of about 10.6) even though many benefits are still highly uncertain or unknown.

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“…experiences from over 100 REACH applications for authorisation Georgiou et al (2018) in their review of BCA within the framework of the EU's REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals)…”

Section: Benefit-cost Analysis In Eu Chemicals Legislationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is reflected in how the analyses have been conducted so far with, for example, firms often not considering distributional effects or effects on other firms, such as competitors, in the market when conducting their analyses. Georgiou et al (2018) end their discussion with suggestions on how to move forward. Despite the problems discussed in their review, they consider REACH to have been a partial success because European firms have been able to apply a benefit-cost logic to their use of substances of very high concern.…”

Section: Benefit-cost Analysis In Eu Chemicals Legislationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The objective of the symposium and this article is to highlight some of the experiences gained from using BCA in Europe and to draw some conclusions on what has been achieved and what the challenges ahead are. To achieve this, the symposium consists of four different articles covering different areas such as the environment (Atkinson, Groom, Hanley & Mourato, 2018), transportation (Andersson, Hultkrantz, Nilsson & Lindberg, 2018), chemical risks (Georgiou, Rheinberger & Vainio, 2018), and regional development (Florio, Morretta & Willak, 2018), in different countries and institutional settings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Application of BCA in Europe – Experiences and Challenges

Andersson¹

2018

J. Benefit Cost Anal.

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Although benefit-cost analysis (BCA) can be traced back to European thinkers, its first practical applications were in the United States. Recent years have witnessed a growing demand for economic appraisals of policies in different sectors in Europe, but the implementation rate is still low compared to that in the United States. This article introduces a symposium that includes four articles that present current examples of how BCA is being applied in different sectors and in different institutional settings in Europe. They deal with environmental valuation in the United Kingdom, economic analysis for investment in Sweden's transport sector, economic versus financial returns in European Union investment project appraisal, and BCA in EU chemicals legislation. The goal is to stimulate continuing discussion on the implementation of BCA, not only in Europe but also worldwide.

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Benefit-Cost Analysis in EU Chemicals Legislation: Experiences from over 100 REACH Applications for Authorisation

Cited by 9 publications

References 13 publications

Socio-economic analysis in REACH restriction dossiers for chemicals management: A critical review

Socio-economic analysis in REACH restriction dossiers for chemicals management: A critical review

Benefits and Costs of Regulating and Restricting Chemicals: The European Union’s REACH System and Its Effects on the Austrian Economy

Application of BCA in Europe – Experiences and Challenges

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