The Chemical & Allied Industries’ Association presented the Responsible Care Product Stewardship and Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals Workshop in Johannesburg and Durban in June. Product stewardship is the business process that manages the potential safety, health and environmental impacts of a chemical throughout its life cycle. The workshop focused on sharing product stewardship best practices, aligning company product stewardship programmes with the requirements of the GHS and identifying ways in which a company’s existing product stewardship programme can be enhanced.

Incidents that occur as a result of a lack of attention to product stewardship could result in injuries, fatalities as well as damage to the environment.   Such incidents are often placed in the spotlight and gain widespread media attention.  Louise Lindeque, RC Manager at CAIA, explained that: “An effective company Product Stewardship Management Programme that is aligned with the requirements of the GHS will assist companies to reduce risk and to manage the safety, health and environmental implications of their products effectively.”  Lindeque added that product stewardship is one of the pillars of RC and the implementation of product stewardship programmes are mandatory for all RC signatories.

Worldwide, there are different systems for classifying and labelling chemicals.  Consequently, the same substance may be classified as toxic, non-hazardous or harmful to health – depending in which country the classification has been made.  “Using the GHS - where the classification of a substance or mixture is carried out on the basis of its intrinsic properties (physical, health and environmental hazards) using harmonised criteria - provides a common and coherent basis for chemical classification and hazard communication.  The implementation of the GHS will therefore contribute to improving safety, health and environmental measures on a global level by harmonising classification criteria and communication tools,” said Gregory Deysel, Field Marketing Manager, Merck Millipore International.

Other speakers at the workshop presented on topics that included managing the safety of chemicals by using the harmonised hazard communication tools specified by the GHS, including Safety Data Sheets and chemical labels, how to extend product stewardship down the supply chain, and Stoffenmanager - a free web-based tool for occupational exposure assessment and risk control that can be used to assist with handling hazardous substances with more care.

Responsible Care product stewardship workshops assist the chemical and allied industries to design and implement product stewardship programmes that can be built on a management system approach so that the handling of chemical products occurs in a safe and responsible manner.  The workshops have contributed towards an improved understanding of product stewardship and the requirements of the GHS, the sharing of knowledge and the implementation of best practice within the chemical and allied industries.

Amongst the delegates, twelve representatives from the Southern African Development Community, who were sponsored by the Responsible Care Leadership Group of the International Council of Chemical Associations, also attended the workshop in Johannesburg.  The feedback from the representatives was positive; particularly regarding the benefits of sharing best practices and the Guiding Principles of RC.  For further information, please contact Louise Lindeque on 011 482-1671 or at rcare2@caia.co.za