Abstract
International cooperation in chemical safety has existed for more than a 100 years. Over the past half century it has grown considerably, and there are now upwards of one hundred international agreements, programs and initiatives concerning chemical safety. Within a few decades, almost all chemicals of significance will have been assessed for their hazards, and a global system will ensure that chemical substances and preparations are classified and labelled in a uniform way with respect to their hazards. This chapter discusses the challenges and trends in global chemical management with focus on three major issues: (1) the difficulties for both developed and developing countries to live up to the many international agreements, particularly with respect to reducing risks, (2) the difficulties for non-governmental stakeholders to keep abreast of the enormously complex information and to contribute to chemical safety development, and (3) how to best cope with the risks from the many substances that emerge from various sources with volumes doubling within a generation and reaching the environment and man via a multitude of pathways. Addressing these issues requires new policy developments. In this respect, the chapter examines the potential for the global chemical safety framework to adopt some of the regulatory and economic instruments in use in global radiation safety.
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Notes
- 1.
The designations ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ are intended as broad descriptions and do not necessarily express a judgement about the stage reached by a particular country or region in the development process. Reference to developing countries is generally intended to include countries with economies in transition as well.
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Bengtsson, G. (2010). Global Trends in Chemicals Management. In: Eriksson, J., Gilek, M., Rudén, C. (eds) Regulating Chemical Risks. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9428-5_12
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