<p>The importance of chemical use is enormous for areas such as agriculture, industry and medicine and hence a prerequisite for our modern society. In order to protect humans and the environment from the negative effects of chemical use, chemical regulations have been used at a relatively early stage in our history. The purpose of REACH, the new chemical regulation of the European Union, is to generate new knowledge of chemicals within the European market and to increase the responsibilities of the enterprises when it comes to risk management. Whether the enterprises will implement the regulations or not will be of vital importance for the realization of the law’s intentions.</p><p>The purpose of this study was to identify possibilities and problems that can occur when a downstream-user SME is about to implement REACH. Case study is the method by which this study has been carried out. Further, the study includes 20 smaller interviews with focus on smaller enterprises to address the generalization of the case study and to investigate the knowledge about REACH within this group of enterprises. The results from the case study showed three aspects that were important for this enterprise in the implementation process; the chosen enterprise had an active trade organization, the enterprise was a formulator and the size of the enterprise. The results from the telephone interviews showed that 12 of 20 enterprises were not aware of the new legislation but that there are differences between the subgroups of downstream-users. All of the interviewed formulators were aware of the legislation and had also started to work active towards implementing it, within the group of professional users only one of the enterprises were aware of the legislation. Further the telephone interviews did not show any clearly connection between the size of the enterprises and the level of knowledge about the new regulation, something that has been shown in earlier studies. Hence, there is a risk that the lack of knowledge will have a negative impact on the overall goal of REACH; to contribute to a sustainable development. From the results of this study it is motivated with directed information within this group of enterprises to overcome the lack of knowledge and to increase the chance that REACH will be a valuable contribution to a sustainable development within the chemical sector.</p>

The importance of chemical use is enormous for areas such as agriculture, industry and medicine and hence a prerequisite for our modern society. In order to protect humans and the environment from the negative effects of chemical use, chemical regulations have been used at a relatively early stage in our history. The purpose of REACH, the new chemical regulation of the European Union, is to generate new knowledge of chemicals within the European market and to increase the responsibilities of the enterprises when it comes to risk management. Whether the enterprises will implement the regulations or not will be of vital importance for the realization of the law’s intentions. The purpose of this study was to identify possibilities and problems that can occur when a downstream-user SME is about to implement REACH. Case study is the method by which this study has been carried out. Further, the study includes 20 smaller interviews with focus on smaller enterprises to address the generalization of the case study and to investigate the knowledge about REACH within this group of enterprises. The results from the case study showed three aspects that were important for this enterprise in the implementation process; the chosen enterprise had an active trade organization, the enterprise was a formulator and the size of the enterprise. The results from the telephone interviews showed that 12 of 20 enterprises were not aware of the new legislation but that there are differences between the subgroups of downstream-users. All of the interviewed formulators were aware of the legislation and had also started to work active towards implementing it, within the group of professional users only one of the enterprises were aware of the legislation. Further the telephone interviews did not show any clearly connection between the size of the enterprises and the level of knowledge about the new regulation, something that has been shown in earlier studies. Hence, there is a risk that the lack of knowledge will have a negative impact on the overall goal of REACH; to contribute to a sustainable development. From the results of this study it is motivated with directed information within this group of enterprises to overcome the lack of knowledge and to increase the chance that REACH will be a valuable contribution to a sustainable development within the chemical sector.

Kemikalier utgör en grundläggande beståndsdel av det senindustriella samhället, och en omfattande produktion av kemikalier brukar allmänt anses som en nödvändig förutsättning för teknisk utveckling och ekonomisk tillväxt. I Sverige ledde miljölarmen om DDT, PCB och kvicksilver på 1960- och 1970-talet till inrättandet av ett system för kemikaliekontroll som brukar framhållas som ett av världens främsta. Avhandlingen undersöker detta kontrollsystem och dess logik. Detta görs genom textanalys av propositioner, statliga utredningar, rapporter från Naturvårdsverket och Kemikalieinspektionen, samt genom intervjuer med anställda på sistnämnda myndigheter. Analysen identifierar kemikaliekontroll i Sverige som ett system genomsyrat av motsättningar, vilka bottnar i en epistemologisk paradox som innebär att ju mer kunskap som ackumuleras om kemikalier, desto mer ökar osäkerheten. Den konstanta ökningen av världens kemikalieproduktion, i kombination med kemikaliers epistemologiska komplexitet, placerar kontrollmyndigheterna i en omöjlig sits. Samtidigt visar avhandlingen att myndigheterna är delaktiga i att upprätthålla detta kontrollsystem som till stor del är ett system av simulerad kontroll. Dels förmedlar kontrollsystemet genom sin blotta existens intrycket av kontroll, och dels fungerar vissa centrala regulatoriska begrepp som signaler om kontroll, trots att de visar sig vara ihåliga. På så vis blir osäkerhet inom kontrollsystemet alltid ett undantag, trots att den är så utbredd. / Chemical substances have become an inextricable feature of the late-industrial society, deemed necessary for the welfare, technological development and economic growth that large parts of the world have come to expect. In Sweden, the identification in the 1960s and 1970s of DDT, PCB and mercury as serious environmental threats led to the establishment of a system of chemicals control which is widely held to be one of the most advanced in the world. The thesisexamines this control system, its possibilities, its problems and its logic, through text analysis of state reports, governmental propositions, the reports of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and the Swedish Chemicals Agency (SCA), and interviews with employees at these agencies. The analysis shows chemicals control in Sweden to be a system pervaded with contradictions, which may be explained by an epistemological paradox at its core: that the accumulation of knowledge only serve to increase uncertainty. The constant increase of chemicals production, in combination with the highly unpredictable character of chemicals in the environment, puts the monitoring agencies in an impossible situation, always working against the tide. The thesis also shows, however, that the agencies are themselves an important part of maintaining a system of control that is to a large extent simulated. This in the sense that the system, by its very existence as well as by the circulation of regulatory concepts and principles within it which are in fact without much substance, always signals control, and constitute uncertainty as the exception.