REACH aims at promoting the safe use of chemicals in Europe, inter alia by identification and regulation of substances of very high concern (SVHCs). Once identified, SVHCs need to be substituted by safer alternatives. However, substitutes are frequently not safer than the substances that they replace but rather show similar hazard profiles, resulting in regrettable substitution. This paper investigates the impact of chemicals regulation on substitution of chemicals by analyzing time trends in the industrial use of chemicals from 2000 to 2014 in Scandinavia. It is shown that the use of ten water-relevant SVHCs decreased by about 90% in the considered period in Sweden as compared to a control group of unregulated substances which decreased by only 20%. A closer inspection of the use of 23 highly used plasticizers revealed that the use of regulated phthalate plasticizers decreased while the use of non-phthalate plasticizers increased. A first comparison of hazardous properties showed that during the 15-years period chemical substitution drastically reduced the chemical hazard burden of plasticizers in Scandinavia for both, the environment and human health. This study shows that regulation and the related discussion on chemicals safety have significantly reduced the chemical hazard burden from plasticizers in Scandinavia since the year 2000. It is assumed that similar trends can be found for the whole European Union. To combat regrettable substitution, mitigation options are suggested, including information-based tools for the identification of safer alternatives and an improved accessibility of information on production volumes and uses of chemicals to allow for an improved assessment of chemical's risk.

REACH旨在通过识别和管理高度关注物质（SVHC）来促进欧洲化学品的安全使用。一旦确定，SVHC需要用更安全的替代品替代。但是，替代品通常并不比其替代品更安全，而是表现出相似的危害特征，导致令人遗憾的替代品。本文通过分析斯堪的纳维亚半岛2000年至2014年化学工业使用的时间趋势，研究了化学法规对化学替代的影响。结果表明，在考虑的时期内，瑞典的十种与水有关的SVHC的使用量减少了约90％，与之相比，未受管​​制物质的对照组仅减少了20％。仔细检查23种常用增塑剂的使用揭示了受管制的邻苯二甲酸酯增塑剂的使用减少，而非邻苯二甲酸酯增塑剂的使用增加。危险特性的第一次比较显示，在15年的时间里，化学替代品极大地降低了斯堪的纳维亚半岛增塑剂对环境和人类健康的化学危害负担。这项研究表明，自2000年以来，有关化学品安全的法规和相关讨论已大大降低了斯堪的纳维亚半岛增塑剂的化学危害负担。假定整个欧盟都可以找到类似的趋势。为了应对令人遗憾的替代，建议采取缓解措施，