The Asian Helsinki Chemicals Forum and the 4th Summit Meeting on Chemical Regulations in Asia Pacific was Successfully Held in Shanghai

24-25 October 2019, the Asian Helsinki Chemicals Forum and the 4th Summit Meeting on Chemical Regulations in Asia Pacific (HCF&SMCR2019) jointly hosted by Chemical Inspection and Regulation Service Limited and Helsinki Chemicals Forum (HCF) was successfully held in Shanghai.

Officials and experts from European Chemicals Agency, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Department of Commodity Inspection under the General Administration of Customs, China Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center under Ministry of Environment and Ecology, Institute of Highway Science under the Ministry of Transport, Shanghai Customs, Thailand Pollution Control Agency, Eurometaux, AICM, Singapore Chemical Industry Council, Korea Chemicals Management Association, Sahtech, Alliance to End Plastic Waste, IPEN, Only Representative Organization, SETAC Asia, and Risk & Policy Analysts, Shenzhen Zero Waste, Dow Chemical (China) have given speeches during the conference.

Over 100 companies, including P&G, Arkema, Shell, Johnson and Johnson, Michelin, BASF, Honeywell, Dow, Bayer, Evonik, 3E Company, Royal DSM, Intertek, Nickel Institute have attended the conference.

Mr. Geert Dancet, Secretary General of Helsinki Chemicals Forum

Yoke Loon Lim, AICM Board Member

During the conference, Mr. Dancet and Mr. Lim gave the opening speech. They believed that, Asia being the most potential chemical market around the world, China has become the key country for chemical manufacturing and trading. The Asian HCF is a shorter version of the 2019 HCF taking place in Helsinki on 23rd-24th May with high-level keynote speeches and open debate among speakers and public on hot topics in chemicals regulation globally. The three topics will be taken from the five presented in Helsinki as they are equally relevant to Asia. The compositions of the panels and the audience will be different so that the content and conclusions will be suitable and unique to the Asian context.

Yan Li, President of Chemical Inspection and Regulation Service Limited

Xianhui Zhou, Deputy Secretary General of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association

Cooperative solutions to challenges in implementing industrial chemicals management systems

Mr. Anthony Cox from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Mr. Tim Kasten from United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have given keynote speeches on Cooperative Solutions to Emerging Challenges in Implementing Industrial Chemicals Management Systems and Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste for a Sustainable World respectively.

Tim Kasten, Deputy Director, Economy Division, UNEP

Anthony Cox, Deputy Director, Environment Directorate, OECD

Mr. Qunli Yu from General Administration of Customs has analyzed the current status of the inspection and supervision of imported waste materials from the following three perspectives:

1. Inspection and supervision of import/export hazardous chemicals by the Customs;
2. Inspection and supervision of imported waste materials by the Customs;
3. International cooperation and communications;

Qunli Yu, Deputy Director, Division of Commodity Inspection, General Administration of Customs

During the conference, three panel discussions have been organized. Officials and industrial experts gave interpretation on the latest chemical regulations and provided their experience on regulatory compliance. They also made adequate communications on the hot topics within the industry.

Ms. Eeva Leinala from OECD, Ms. Xiuyun Guo, Deputy Director of China NRCC, Ms. Meg Postle from Risk & Policy Analyst (RPC), Mr. Da Mao from Shenzhen Zero Waste as well as Ms. Jing Dong from Dow Chemical (China) have talked about the supervision and development of chemical management systems in different countries from the following four perspectives:

1. An meaningful indicator to measure success;
2. Criteria for success from different people;
3. Inspection of chemicals from an industry perspective;
4. How to assess the value for money of the different regulatory systems.

Tim Kasten from UNEP, Ms. Pornpimon Chareonsong from Thailand Control Agency, Mr. Yoke Loon Lim from Alliance to End Plastic Waste, Ms. Jane Bremmer from IPEN as well as Mr. Erwin Annys from ECHA have talked about the current status of plastic pollution and the policy making principle. They also discussed how to increase recycling and decrease the specific use of micro-plastics.

Mr. Hugo Waeterschoot from Eurometaux, Mr. Bob Diderich from OECD, Ms. Jing You from SETAC Asia, Mr. Jowitt Lee from Sahtech, Mr. Erwin Annys from ECHA as well as Mr. Dieter Drohmann from Only Representative Organization have talked about the new measures they adopted for data analyst and the difficulties they encountered during the process. They also discussed the data available, its quality and the accessibility from a scientific perspective.

Mr. Jibiao Zhou, Vice President, AICM Industrial Policy Advocacy Committee

China is strengthening the chemical substance safety management

Mr. Honglian Wei from Technical Center for Solid Waste and Chemical Management, Ministry of Ecology and Environment said during the conference that up to 2030, China will account for nearly 50% of the global chemical sales. China is facing unprecedented challenges in chemical environmental management. In the future, China would strengthen basic capacity building, establish a technical standard system for chemical risk assessment, build a national risk assessment database, national chemical testing assessment laboratory, develop a chemical management system, as well as prevent and control of chemicals from the source.

Mr. Honglian Wei, Head Engineer, Technical Center for Solid Waste and Chemical Management, Ministry of Ecology and Environment

During the conference, Mr. Jinhe Chen from NRCC under Ministry of Emergency Management has talked about the supervision on hazardous chemicals and its development. Mr. Chen particularly introduced how to improve risk control through information methods, including the construction of intelligent online monitoring and warning system for major hazard sources, so as to improve comprehensive safety management for hazardous chemicals.

Mr. Jinhe Chen, NRCC, Ministry of Emergency Management

Mr. Jinzhong Wu from Ministry of Research Institute of Highway Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Transport has introduced the JT/T 617. Mr. Wu gave a detailed introduction to the differences between JT/T 617 and ADR as well as the implementation status, which helped participants better understand the JT/T 617.

Mr. Jinzhong Wu, Chief Engineer, Ministry of Research Institute of Highway Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Transport

Mr. Feng Liu from Department of Commodity Inspection, Shanghai Customs has introduced the import/export hazardous goods in Shanghai Port and the packaging inspection status. Mr. Liu particularly introduced the unqualified status occurred during inspection in Shanghai Port, and called for better understand of hazardous chemicals management policies in China, so as to prevent unqualified packages.

Mr. Feng Liu Deputy Director, Department of Commodity Inspection, Shanghai Customs

ECHA is strengthening dossier assessment

In order to help domestic enterprises better understand the obligations after REACH registration, Mr. Erwin Annys from ECHA is invited to introduce the dossier assessment status. Mr. Annys analyzed the reasons for incompliant dossiers and how to improve compliance. Meanwhile, Mr. Annys revealed that ECHA would expand the proportion for compliance assessment in the future.

Mr. Erwin Annys, Head of Unit Support and Enforcement, European Chemicals Agency

The latest development on chemical regulations in other Asian countries

1 Jan. 2019, the amended K-REACH officially took effect. During the conference, Mr. Soonkwang Kwon from Korea Chemical Management Association has introduced the K-REACH updates and the registration status. According to Mr. Kwon, the total pre-registrations reached 16743.

Mr. Soonkwang Kwon, Korea Chemical Management Association

Dr. Caroline Li from Singapore Chemical Industry Council has introduced the chemical regulations Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Mr. Jowitt Li from SAHTEACH has given a detailed introduction to the registration of new and existing chemical substances in Taiwan.

Caroline Li, Singapore Chemical Industry Council

Durand-Delacre Xavier, AICM Board Member

The Asian Helsinki Chemicals Forum and the 4th Summit Meeting on Chemical Regulations in Asia Pacific is highly appraised by invited guests and participants. Participants will better under the current status of global chemical regulations and the future trends. In the future, the conference will continue to set up a bridge between chemical enterprises and the competent authority, and commit to the sound development of chemicals.