Do you make, sell or use a hazardous chemical? Then maybe you know this scenario: evidence of harm is growing, alternatives are emerging, and regulators have started taking an interest.
Ay, caramba! But relax. It’s not the end of your business. You have plenty of opportunities to turn action into inertia.
Just follow these six simple steps and you, too, can delay regulation and keep your hazardous chemical on the market indefinitely. (Well, almost.)
1. Declare that your chemical is ‘critical’
Start with the dictionary — you don’t need to change the chemical, just the definition. Your chemical is widely used, so industry depends on it. If industry depends on it, then it must be critical, right? And surely something critical deserves protection!
Missing from this convenient logic is whether society needs your particular chemical, or whether safer alternatives could do the job. Has someone confused protecting critical functions with preserving existing production? Maybe. But you’re just using your critical thinking skills.
2. Discuss whether to start a discussion
Before anyone decides what action to take, make sure you spend some time debating which process should decide it. Better yet, invent an entirely new process and argue about that instead.
Have you considered an upfront Risk Management Option Analysis, for example? You can really dive deep into your assessment of the assessment.
And when that’s done, you can always conclude what you already knew beforehand — that controlling emissions really is good enough. There’s no need to replace your hazardous chemical with a safer one, even if that would solve the problem more effectively.
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3. Send your chemical to a workshop
Those new innovation and substitution hubs could help your company switch to safer alternatives. Or maybe not! Think of them like a summer camp for chemical producers. None of those pesky NGOs or alternative providers — only your fellow polluters agreeing with each other about how difficult the problem is.
These hubs involve lots and lots of workshops. But that’s ideal! And as long as you look like you’re busy workshopping alternatives, it wouldn’t make sense to regulate. Right??
4. Insist on absolute certainty
Of course, we all agree that scientific scrutiny is essential. And when you are paying the scientists, they can always find another detail to investigate, another dataset to request, or another uncertainty to challenge. Paralysis by analysis! Scientific opinion is really quite cheap and easy to purchase.
Feel free to do your own research while you’re at it! You only need to share your work if you like the results. Decisions must be based on proper science (so long as the science says the right thing).
5. Turn the deadline into a moving target
Yikes, has some fool made a regulatory proposal? We were really hoping it wouldn’t get this far. But if it has, now’s the time to focus on necessary exceptions to the law.
As a general rule, any aspect of a regulation that might have even the slightest impact on your business is a disaster for Europe and must be deleted. You should tell this to the European Commission as often and as loudly as possible.
Start booking meetings with people at every level in Brussels. Ask for more time, broader derogations, fewer obligations to demonstrate progress, whatever. When you keep policymakers busy, it makes it harder for them to actually make policy.
6. Start a messy fight in public
You know what? Screw those guys. Sue them. Sue them all! They can’t make you abide by existing laws set out in the EU Treaty or REACH. And they sure as hell won’t boss you around with new legislation.
If you pay them enough, the lawyers won’t let them get away with taking your precious chemicals. And while the legal sparks are flying, you can keep your hazardous substance on the market for a few more years!
