As the second International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM-2) approaches next week in Geneva, Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), highlighted the progress made by the global chemical industry. In a letter sent to Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, Dooley reiterated the industry’s strong commitment to the United Nations’ Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). SAICM is a multi-stakeholder effort to minimize significant adverse effects of chemicals on health and the environment by 2020.

“Since the launch three years ago of major initiatives to fulfill industry’s obligation under SAICM, we have made great strides in transparent and robust product stewardship,” Dooley said.

“The Responsible Care Global Charter and the Global Product Strategy (launched at ICCM-1 in 2006) reflect the industry belief that the most effective chemicals management can be achieved through a balanced combination of regulation and industry-driven initiatives,” he wrote. “ACC is committed to going beyond compliance with regulatory systems to ensure the safe production, management, and use of chemicals throughout the value chain. At ICCM-2, ICCA will be announcing enhancements to the Global Product Strategy that define a base set of information adequate to conduct safety assessments.”

At the Geneva event, ACC will help lead an effort by the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) to present a progress report--which Dooley also sent to Secretary Clinton--that reflects the global industry’s achievements, including: developing a set of global product stewardship guidelines for use by member associations and companies; providing capacity building projects in a number of developing countries, to implement the best safety assessment practices and risk management procedures; securing support from more than 75 additional global company CEOs for the Responsible Care Global Charter and Global Product Strategy.

“In the U.S., ACC members have achieved significant success,” Dooley said. “Under our Responsible Care initiative, members must develop a system to identify and evaluate health, safety, security, and environmental hazards and assess the risks associated with new and existing products. Then the member company must facilitate the flow of hazard and safe handling information along the supply chain, making crucial product stewardship information publicly available. Eighty-six percent of ACC members have a process to prioritize chemicals and we will get to 100 percent in the next three years. We are committed to the safety of our products and look forward to sharing our success with a global audience next week.”

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