Comprehensive Chemical Legislation is Needed in Israel

The international environmental legislation in the last couple of years has been referring to the determination of prohibitions and restrictions on the use of chemicals that may be released into the environment by air and water and that have negative effects on the public health and the environment. This type of legislation is not part of the traditional clean air or clean water legislation – it is part of new developing chemical legislation. Chemical legislation determines a framework of regulation that is related to chemicals in aspects of daily life– in food, drugs, pigments, cosmetics, pesticides, electrical and electronic equipment, etc. Today, the most important regulatory body in this field is the European Union that has lead already to two significant revolutions: the first, in the directive published in 2005 that prohibited the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic waste (RoHS directive) and the second, the REACH regulation that entered into force in 2007 and regulates the registration, evaluation, authorization and restrictions of chemicals. In both cases, the new legislation influenced most of the other countries to adopt similar legislation and a similar approach to chemical legislation. The article reviews examples of developments in the chemicals legislation in the world and offers a model for similar legislation in Israel.