Chemical Industry Services

EHS Regulatory Environment

The chemical industry is subject to some of the most comprehensive Environmental, Health and Safety regulations affecting production, distribution and general use of chemical products

• Chemical Production Regulations: Compared to general industry, chemical production facilities face more stringent control and enforcement by authorities and are required to make more information available to the public.
• Chemical Distribution Regulations: Transport of chemicals will usually be covered by the regulations on transport of dangerous goods.  Although these regulations usually follow international conventions, local requirements often persist.  Chemical transport is often subject to a whole array of additional regulatory controls.
• Chemical Product Regulations: Putting chemical products on the global market remains a major challenge, in terms of ensuring proper notification, classification, packaging, labeling, and material safety data sheets. Many countries impose specific restrictions or maintain peculiar requirements. These are both market obstacles as well as business opportunities.

Additionally, any EHS misstep brings not only regulatory implications but high profile public scrutiny. Accidents like Flixborough (UK-1974), Seveso (IT-1976), Bhopal (IN-1984), Mexico City (MX-1984), Basel (CH-1986), Enschede (NL-2000), Toulouse (FR-2001) or Jilin (CN-2005) each triggered outcries from the public and increased regulatory controls worldwide.

The challenges posed by the regulatory environment and public visibility are a determining factor in the growth and ultimate survival of chemical companies.

Specific Regulatory Challenges

The three most important regulatory developments facing the chemical industry are the implementation of:

1. the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), by 2008,
2. the European Union Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) (2007-2018), and
3. the global Strategic Approach for International Chemicals Management (SAICM) which aims to achieve, by 2020, that chemicals are produced and used in ways that lead to the minimization of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment.

Not only will these developments effect Europe and North America, but they will lead to the introduction of chemical regulations in many countries throughout Asia and South America that to date have minimal applicable regulations. Additionally, there are numerous countries where existing chemical regulations will have to be substantially revised in order to comply to the internationally agreed harmonized standards.

These three initiatives also aim to generate further data on chemicals likely resulting in further restrictions and requirements.

Enhesa Expertise

For over 15 years, ENHESA has been advising companies in the chemical industry to ensure ongoing worldwide regulatory compliance as well as turning regulatory challenges into business opportunities.

Both bulk and specialty chemical companies rely on Enhesa services for ensuring ongoing regulatory compliance including: Country Profiles, Audit Protocols, and Regulatory Monitoring.

Some tools and services have also been developed specifically for our chemical industry clients and include:

• Chemical Product Regulatory Monitoring: Turning the environmental regulatory challenge into a business opportunity. Since 1997 Enhesa has been reviewing changes in environmental regulations to identify pending and future requirements for the chemical products as well as new potential business opportunities created by restrictions being imposed from a health or environmental fate perspective. The unique Enhesa chemical tracking system developed since 2004 allows the identification of pending and future chemical restrictions around the globe. (See also the Enhesa Monitoring Service)
• Chemical Product Regulatory Fact Sheets: Before you put your product on the market how do you know what you need to do in order to ensure product compliance? How can you verify product compliance? The Enhesa Product Fact Sheets is the Answer. Enhesa starts with a review of the product and an identification of how the product could possibly be regulated (chemical notifications requirements, anti-poison centre notifications, chemical packaging and labeling requirements, MSDS requirements, packaging waste requirements, eco-label opportunities, hazardous materials transport requirements, etc.). For each of these regulatory aspects, the international requirements as well as any possible variations at national level, are determined and documented in product fact sheets with an easy to use checklist.

ENHESA also collaborates with several specialized chemical service providers, including ChemWatch, ChemAdvisor, RoyalHaskoning, KemikaXXI, Technidata and Atrion.

Upcoming Events for the Chemical Industry

ENHESA often participates, exhibits and/or provides presentations at chemical regulatory conferences, such as:

• The International Conferences for Chemical Control Legislation, held annually alternating between Europe and Asia.
• The Global Chemical Regulations Conference held annually in the US.

The main chemical industry organizations include the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the Canadian Chemical Producers' Association (CCPA), the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC), the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE).

The main players in the chemical industry are global players and include US-based companies such as Dow Chemical, DuPont, Lyondell Chemical, Huntsman, PPG Industries, Ashland, Air Products, Rohm & Haas, Praxair, Sherwin-Williams, Eastman Chemical, Monsanto, Celanese, Avery Dennison, Hexion Specialty Chemicals, Mosaic, Lubrizol, Nalco Holding, Chemtura, Rockwood Holdings, Cytec Industries, Solutia, Valspar, PolyOne, W.R. Grace, RPM International, UAP Holding, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Georgia Gulf, FMC, Cabot, Albemarle, Hercules, Intl. Flavors & Frag., Terra Industries, CF Industries, Sigma-Aldrich, H.B. Fuller, and Schulman.

Other major players are based in Europe, Canada or Japan and include BASF, Shell, Total, Dow Chemical, Bayer, ICI, Air Liquide, Degussa, DuPont, Mitsubishi Chemical, Sabic, Akzo Nobel, Hanwha, Asahi Kasei, Arkema, Nova Chemicals, DSM, Solvay, and Ciba Specialty Chemicals.

Many of these major players rely on ENHESA services to ensure ongoing global regulatory compliance.

One of the major initiatives taken by the chemical industry to improve its EHS performance is Responsible Care. The initiative allows chemical companies to work together to continuously improve their health, safety and environmental performance, and to communicate with stakeholders about their products and processes.

Chemical Industry Public Information Links 

• The text of the REACH Regulation, with easy to use document bookmarks on all chapters, articles and annexes.
• World Bank Group Pollution Prevention and Abatement Handbook Chapter on Petrochemicals Manufacturing (July 1998)
• US Environmental Protection Agency Profile of the Profile of the Organic Chemical Industry (Sector Notebook Project - EPA/310-R-02-001 - Nov 2002)
• US Environmental Protection Agency Profile of the Profile of the Inorganic Chemical Industry (Sector Notebook Project - EPA/310-R-95-004 - Sep 1995)
• ChemAlliance Regulatory Information for the Chemical Process Industries
• Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) provides background information on international and national policy initiatives to foster dafe handling and use of chemicals.
• European Union IPPC BREF Notes provide an overview of Best Available Technique for various industrial chemical processes.
• Chemical Incidents Report Center (CIRC) The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board promotes the prevention of major chemical accidents at fixed facilities. The site provides access to a database with records of some 1500 chemical accidents worldwide.
• Emergency Events Database (EMDAT) contains essential core data on the occurrence and effects of over 12,500 mass disasters in the world from 1900 to present (updated weekly). Database search possibilities and Country Profiles.
• OECD Page on Chemical Accidents The site provides a chemical accident thesaurus, an online version of the OECD Guiding Principles for Chemical Accident Prevention, Preparedness and Response, a description of the work programme, several reports on the issue and a list of internet links to national and international sites.
• US National Response Centre implemented an on-line query system that makes all oil and chemical spill data in the US since 1982 available on the internet. One can query by company name, city, type of incident, etc.
• EU Major Accidents Hazard Bureau provides access to the Major Accident Reporting System database, as well as to the Community Documentation Centre on Industrial Risk. Numerous guidance documents available and access to chemicals database.