The “Chemicals in Products” (CiP)’s program which is related to the “Strategic Approach for International Chemical management” (SAICM) depends on a main principle, which is that “all the partners that are involved in the network of providing the markets and consumers with chemical products, must possess reliable and credible information related to chemicals, and which can be relied upon to take appropriate decisions around chemicals in the products.” This should also be done with full transparency and openness, even for chemicals, which pose a threat to the human health and the environment.
This principle is achieved through the following issues:
– Information related to health and safety should not be viewed as confidential. This main principle of chemical safety, however, should not be mixed with confidential business information “CBI”. There is a consensus in multilateral International environmental agreements, and which are legally binding, which states on the need to facilitate the access to information related to health and safety, and the “Strategic Approach” SAICM also emphasizes this compatibility. All governments, as well as the United Nations Environment Programme, should not underestimate the importance of this main principle of chemical safety. On the other hand, the producers must strictly abide with full transparency around the presence of toxic and dangerous chemicals in their products.
– There should be a unified objective approach, to disseminate information about chemicals in products, and it is to be relied on in all countries. This means that the companies and exporters of products containing chemicals from Industrialized countries, should not exploit the legislative weaknesses in developing countries, neither should they exploit the absence of the necessary and regulatory statutes of this principle, which developing countries lack. Industrialized countries must adhere to the unity of standards, with regard to health and chemical safety, and they should impose the application of this principle on all of their products, regardless if they were directed to their markets, or the markets of the importing developing countries.
– There must be a consolidated list of hazardous chemicals, by referring to the most stringent regulatory list, in order to be used in all countries, where there is a weakness in the application of the regulatory requirements. Governments and international organizations, particularly the United Nations Environment Programme, should take more effective actions, to ensure the highest level of transparency, and an easy access to information related to the health and safety of chemicals in products, and in all countries.
