We provide two main resources to help you with your outreach:

1. Please download our European Advocacy Toolkit from our Advocacy page. The Toolkit aims at promoting the benefits and strategic importance of lead and lead batteries in Europe. It consists of a repository of slides, case studies, arguments, and data points that you can tailor to your specific needs and stakeholder meetings. The Toolkit covers a wide range of topics, from economic contributions to strategic applications of lead batteries, and will be updated 1-2 times per year.

How to Use the Toolkit:

• • Select Relevant Slides: Choose the slides that best align with the topic of your meeting and the audience you are addressing. We do not recommend presenting the deck in full.
  • Customise the Content: Feel free to modify the slides to better fit your message and audience.
  • Keep Us Updated: Let us know who you met and key lead-related topics discussed, so we can
    help amplify and ensure we ‘speak with one voice’.
  • Share Your Feedback and Suggestions: If you consider something missing or important to
    include, or you can provide additional facts and data, please contact us

2. Please visit and promote Lead Matters. This collaborative campaign showcases the essentiality of lead metal across Europe. Developed by the Lead (Pb) REACH Consortium, it supports over 40 sectors in highlighting the vital, safe and sustainable use of lead in their industries.

Each Lead Matters case study has been categorised for ease of use across five key EU priorities and includes an industry factfile that demonstrate lead’s importance to that particular use, and its impact in that sector. The site also provides insights on applications using lead and thoughts on policy initiatives affecting lead – all of which can be used to structure relevant advocacy discussions.

Lead Matters is a collaborative campaign which showcases the essentiality of lead. Developed by the Lead (Pb) REACH Consortium (PbRC), a voluntary initiative managed by the International Lead Association (ILA), it supports over 40 sectors in highlighting the vital, safe and sustainable use of lead in their industries.

For example, lead is used in hospitals in radiation shielding and as little as a few millimetres of lead can completely block the passage of harmful radiation, and there are also more than 20 essential uses of lead in the aeronautics industries. Visit Lead Matters to find out more.

REACH is a European Union Regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals. It came into force in 2007 and replaced a number of European Directives and Regulations with a single system. Lead and lead compounds are subject to the provisions of REACH and the Lead REACH Consortium (PbRC) was established to help companies meet their obligations under this Regulation.

As well as its day to day role in supporting these entities in meeting their obligations under REACH, the PbRC also coordinates a specialist communications and advocacy taskforce, dedicated to telling the story of lead and championing its uses, the Lead Metal Advocacy & Communications Taskforce (PbMACTF). Across these networks, the PbRC collaborates with some of the biggest downstream users of lead in the world, as well as those using small volumes that are just as essential.

Whether you’re an EU regulator or policymaker, a technical employee looking to expand on your knowledge, a regulatory affairs officer, or if you are interested in general, a suite of case studies are available for download that demonstrate lead’s essential uses in everyday life.

If you would like to find out more about PbRC’s work and how non-members can get involved with our REACH-related advocacy, contact us.

No.

In April 2023, the European Chemicals Agency recommended lead metal for inclusion in REACH Annex XIV, but the European Commission decided not to progress the substance to the Authorisation List. In January 2024, in an answer to a European Parliamentary Written Question from MEP Tomáš Zdechovský, Mr Thierry Breton responded on behalf of the Commission stating that it “does not intend to include lead in the authorisation list”.

Prior to these developments, following a proposal by the Swedish Chemicals Agency (KemI), lead metal was included in the Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC) for Authorisation in June 2018. The Lead REACH Consortium therefore published an updated set of Frequently Asked Questions on the Candidate Listing of lead metal, its impacts, and subsequent steps towards Authorisation.

Questions 6 to 8 in the Consortium’s Q&A document on classification, concentration limits, thresholds and communication obligations also provides some discussion on the applicability of REACH Authorisation were Pb metal added to Annex XIV in its current guise.

The Lead REACH Consortium oversees the regulatory defence under REACH for lead metal, 11 lead compounds, and 14 UVCB substances which are produced as by-products.

The Secretariat developed, and continues to manage, the Lead Registration dossiers and Chemical Safety Reports, with all 26 substances being registered ahead of the 2010 deadline. The Consortium is actively engaged in the continuous improvement of those registrations, as well as wider regulatory activities and advocacy, particularly in the context of REACH Authorisation and Restriction.

Find out more about the work of the Consortium here.

The biannual General Assembly meetings provide an ideal opportunity to find out more about recent developments in REACH, and to receive information on the progress under the Consortium’s extensive work plan. They are also a great forum to network with fellow Consortium members, and offer the opportunity to discuss with the Secretariat any specific regulatory matters affecting your company.

You can also keep find a copy of this year’s Consortium work plan in the Members’ section of the website.

Information on joining the Consortium, including the application forms, is available on the Consortium’s website. Please contact the Secretariat to request information on the membership costs applicable to your situation.

Consortium membership is open to companies involved in the mining, smelting, refining and recycling of lead, as well as manufacturers and importers of lead compounds and producers of lead-based automotive and industrial batteries. The LOA is offered as a convenient way of accessing the Consortium’s data for the purposes of REACH Registration without becoming a member, and is often a cost-effective approach for legal entities in lower tonnage bands. However, Consortium membership provides many additional benefits.

The Consortium encourages the lawful use of its datasets for compliance with other REACH-like legislation around the world, such as K-REACH. On payment of any relevant fees, non-member companies and non-EU consortia with such legal obligations may be granted a licence to use the Lead REACH Consortium’s data for use outside the EU.

Template Licence to Use (LTU) agreements are available to cover three situations:

• to extend the rights of Lead REACH Consortium Member companies to allow the use of the datasets in non-EU jurisdictions;
• to grant an individual non-member company the right to use a Lead REACH Consortium dataset for non-EU legislation;
• to grant a non-EU consortium, or a group of non-member companies, the right to use a Lead REACH Consortium dataset for non-EU legislation.

The template agreements set out the costs; the Consortium’s website provides more information on applying for a Licence to Use.

Please contact the Secretariat to discuss your particular situation in more detail.

The Consortium offers a ‘Licence to Use’ (LTU) which grants access to the Consortium’s core data on the lead cation to enable read-across. Contact us for more information.

See the substance grade data sheets in Our substances and the Consortium’s CLP activities. You can also find classification information in the Lead Registration dossiers on the ECHA CHEM website.

In the absence of a specific concentration limit, the generic concentration limit applies which, for reproductive toxicity, is 0.3%. For STOT RE 1, the GCL is 10%.

Find out more about the impact of the harmonised classification for lead metal in the Consortium’s FAQ document, Lead Metal and the 9th ATP to CLP Frequently Asked Questions.