At the third session of the International Conference on Chemicals Management, the International Council of Chemical Associations called on stakeholders to take action to strengthen the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), in order to improve and enhance the sound management of chemicals globally.
The goal of SAICM is to ensure that by 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways that minimize significant adverse impacts on human health and the environment. ICCA’s appeal for a recommitment to SAICM echoes the call from world leaders at the June United Nation’s Conference on Sustainable Development to implement and strengthen SAICM as part of a robust system for the sound management of chemicals throughout their lifecycle.
Since the United Nations launched SAICM, ICCA has undertaken a number of activities to support the implementation of the program, including:
- Executing a global training program, through which it has conducted more than 40 “capacity building” workshops over the past four years, to train small- and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries on how to implement the Global Product Strategy (GPS) to enhance their chemicals-management programs.
- Participating in an active partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to develop and promote effective chemicals-management regimes around the world.
- Providing technical support for associations and companies that are actively working to build risk management processes and harmonize them with international standards, including establishing best practice principles for developing hazard exposure information to adequately assess the safety of all chemicals in commerce.
- Sharing information on chemicals in commerce through its GPS Chemicals Portal, a publicly accessible online database with detailed product information on nearly 2,500 chemicals written in layman’s language.
- Working with partners, including United Nations Industrial Development Organization, to provide technical support to address chemical legacy issues, to help prevent human exposures from legacy contamination.