What is REACH?
REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals.
In simple terms, its purpose is to protect people and the environment from potentially harmful substances.
For jewellery and jewellery-making components, the substances we are most commonly asked about are nickel, lead and cadmium.
Nickel restrictions are particularly relevant to items intended to be in direct and prolonged contact with the skin, such as earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings. Importantly, the requirement is not that jewellery must be “nickel free”. Nickel is permitted provided the amount released from the item remains below the permitted limit. Lead and cadmium are restricted because of the potential health risks associated with exposure; jewellery components containing lead at 0.05% by weight or above, or cadmium at 0.01% by weight or above, are restricted, subject to the specific exemptions within the legislation.
The regulations therefore do not simply require every metal item to be tested in the same way. A key ring, for example, would not normally have the same nickel-release considerations as an item designed to remain against the skin.
What types of metal jewellery components are most relevant?
In practice, REACH concerns tend to be more relevant to base-metal and plated jewellery components.
These can contain a mixture of metals within the base alloy, together with different plating layers, so there is more potential for substances such as nickel, lead or cadmium to be present.
With genuine sterling silver and solid gold, the composition of the metal is much more clearly defined, so there is generally less concern about these substances being present at restricted levels.
For this reason, suppliers tend to focus their testing and compliance monitoring more heavily on plated and base-metal products.
Is there such a thing as a REACH certificate?
There is no official standard “REACH certificate” issued for jewellery components.
You may sometimes see products described as “REACH certified”, but this can be misleading. REACH is not a scheme where an authority tests a product, approves it and issues a certificate.
Instead, businesses are responsible for ensuring that the products they place on the market comply with the restrictions that apply to them.
What about test reports?
Laboratory testing is the clearest way to verify that relevant jewellery components meet the applicable limits for substances such as nickel, lead and cadmium.
At Burhouse, we carry out regular batch testing on relevant products for nickel, lead and cadmium as part of our own compliance procedures.
Because we test on a batch basis, we do not hold an individual laboratory report for every product we sell. The reports we do hold form part of Burhouse’s internal compliance records and may also contain commercially sensitive information.
There is no general requirement under REACH for these internal laboratory reports to be supplied to customers, and we do not provide copies with orders.
If your business were ever asked by a retailer, marketplace or regulatory authority to demonstrate compliance, you would need to be able to provide appropriate information relating to the product you are supplying. This may include information about where your components came from, product traceability and, where relevant, testing.
A test report produced for an individual component supplier does not automatically demonstrate the compliance of a finished product made and sold by another business, particularly where components have been combined, soldered, plated or otherwise altered.
So, do I need a REACH certificate from Burhouse?
No.
There is no standard REACH certificate that you are required to obtain from Burhouse simply because you are buying jewellery findings or components to make jewellery for sale.
What is important is that you source your components responsibly and keep appropriate information about where your materials have come from.
Buying from an established supplier such as Burhouse, which understands the relevant regulations and carries out regular compliance checks and batch testing, forms an important part of that due diligence.
Burhouse has supplied gemstones, sterling silver findings and jewellery-making components to the trade for over 50 years, and we regularly batch test relevant products for nickel, lead and cadmium as part of our ongoing compliance monitoring.
If a customer, retailer, marketplace or regulatory authority asks you for a “REACH certificate”, ask them exactly what information they require. There is no standard document by that name, and a request for specific compliance evidence is a different matter.
If you receive a specific compliance enquiry relating to a Burhouse product and are unsure what is being requested, please contact us and we will do our best to help.
This information is provided as general guidance and is not intended as legal or regulatory advice.
