Improving national chemicals management capabilities

As of the early 1990s, the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) had established effluent guidelines for 128 chemicals, had prepared health assessments on fewer than 100 chemicals, and had issued air emission standards for fewer than 10 chemicals. This is the result of 30 years of intense effort. EPA's scientific reassessment of the hazards of just one organochlorine chemical -- dioxin -- has been underway since 1991 and is still in draft form. Even if EPA were to assign vast new resources to the task of evaluating the hazards of chlorinated chemicals, it would take many, many centuries to complete the task.

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends that, in strengthening national capacities for management of chemicals, including development and implementation of, and adaptation to, new classification and labelling systems, the creation of trade barriers should be avoided and the limited capacities and resources of a large number of countries, particularly developing countries, for implementing such systems, should be taken into full account.

One of the objectives of the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) is to improve the capabilities of national authorities to conduct their own evaluations of health and environmental hazards and risks from chemicals. Training courses have been conducted for senior decision makers and carefully chosen professionals. However, insufficient resources have precluded any large-scale training programme. IPCS provides comprehensive sets of tools for increasing the capacity of co un tries to deal effectively with poisonings, including guidelines on setting up and operating poison control centres and a handbook on recognizing poisoning and first aid measures. IPCS is preparing guidelines on the administrative and other structures needed to strengthen national chemical safety programmes.

WHO regional offices and UNEP Chemicals (IRPTC) also run training courses in hazard and risk assessment, and IRPTC furthermore assists countries in establishing national chemical information centres. The ECE encourages the implementation of OECD risk assessment practices by non-OECD members of the ECE region. Some countries in transition reported a particular need to boost their laboratories so as to be able to comply with guidelines. A slow phase-in method was reported to be working well in one transition economy, requiring compliance in the pharmaceutical industry first.

United Nations agencies and programmes, such as ILO, IMO, UNEP, WHO, UNIDO, IPCS and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organize chemical safety training for developing countries. For example, UNIDO pays particular attention to training in the safe formulation and application of pesticides and has published safety guidelines. IPCS and ILO seek to train a country's trainers. ILO provides specific safety training to labour inspectorates.

The United Nations Centre for Urgent Environmental Assistance, which is an experimental programme of UNEP is exploring ways to enhance existing international capacities for responding to emergencies with environmental consequences. Certain developing countries, such as Sri Lanka, have, with the assistance of international organizations, surveyed hazardous industries and their preparedness for emergencies by drawing up programmes for institutional strengthening.

The ECE assists countries in economic transition in the clean-up of chemical waste sites. OECD's Development Assistance Committee recently adopted a number of guidelines on aid and environment which include guidance for the management of chemicals. UNITAR, in cooperation with IPCS and its cooperating organizations, has started work on an inventory of training assistance activities organized by international organizations in the field of chemical safety.

2. The limits of toxicology and epidemiology make the chemical-by-chemical approach unsuitable for protecting health and ecosystems. Synthetic chemicals, such as organochlorines, occur in complex mixtures, so toxicologists and epidemiologists will never be able to sort out which chemical is causing which health effects because groups of these compounds are always responsible.