Press Release

MAJOR GLOBAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRY INITIATIVES LAUNCHED IN PRAGUE

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Brussels, 12 October 1998

At their Board of Directors Meeting in Prague of early October, the International Council of Chemical Associations, ICCA established a framework for a series of major actions and a program to develop further its co-operation with international Authorities.

Delegates from the chemical industries of North and South America, Europe, Japan and Australasia gathered for a two-day meeting to address industry’s responses to global issues.
They had the additional advantage of a presentation, during their session, from Dr Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of UNEP - United Nations Environment Programme.

Under the umbrella of the world chemical industry’s voluntary programme "Responsible Careâ ", important decisions in specific areas have been taken:

• The ICCA Board welcomed a framework proposal on a voluntary global initiative to speed up the process of data collection and hazard assessment of existing chemicals. The ICCA framework is based on the OECD-SIDS (Screening Information Data Set) programme for High Production Volume (HPV) chemicals.

The ICCA Board will recommend that its constituent company and federation members join this global initiative, and thus constructively respond to the world-wide need for faster progress and a more effective process for systematic data gathering.

ICCA, after consultation with OECD, expects to establish a priority list of approximately 1,000 chemicals, focusing on substances of high concern such as those with wide dispersive uses or the potential for extensive human exposure. For this list of priority chemicals, the ICCA Board has requested its member federations to encourage their member companies to make the necessary resources available to complete the OECD / SIDS data packages by the end of the year 2004.

By spreading the effort required over the global chemical industry, the ICCA Board hopes to mobilise sufficient support for achieving this ambitious target.

The ICCA Board emphasised that the initiative would provide an improved basis for existing risk assessment programmes on selected chemicals and thus improves the ability to manage chemicals responsibly.

• In addition to discussing the testing initiative framework, the American, Japanese and European chemical industries underlined their commitment to increasing investment world-wide in a proposed framework for a Long-range Research Initiative (LRI).

The Long-range Research Initiative is a proposal to address emerging and existing health and environment issues. It would provide financial support for independent research to focus on developing sound scientific understanding of the mechanisms via which chemicals impact on people and the environment. This will present companies with knowledge that can be applied to the management of their products, enabling them to build a safe and sustainable portfolio of products.

• Last, the ICCA Board approved representatives to the upcoming Sectoral ILO Meeting in Geneva, February 1999 on the subject of "Voluntary Initiatives Affecting Training on HSE in the Chemical Industry" where the industry will concentrate on its commitment to "Responsible Careâ " . This is the world chemical industry’s voluntary commitment to continuous improvement in Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) and now embraces 42 countries.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Art Sigel, Chairman of the Board of the Chemical Manufactures Association, said, "Now that ICCA has been accorded formal NGO status in the various UN Bodies, it will be able to contribute better to their deliberations in many areas. The ICCA has moved forward considerably. It started informally but has grown into a cohesive forum for the global chemical industry to work together to promote safe management of chemicals and the spread of "Responsible Care "

Select this for Hon Simon Upton's speech: "Short Delay in Start Up of New Hazardous Substances Regime"