Hazard data: the new global currency

摘要

Several legislative milestones are due in 2013, including the next REACH registration deadline and the continuing introduction of new chemicals notification and classification and labelling laws in Asia. A core requirement of these is the availability of hazard data, but, as delegates heard at ChemCon The Americas in December, with companies looking for efficiencies in data generation and submission, there are risks to be aware of. As it was intended to do, REACH is catalysing the collection and availability of hazard data on chemicals, with more generated – and disseminated by ECHA– in the last three years than in the several decades of regulation that preceded it. But speaking at the conference in New Orleans, Lynn Bergeson of Bergeson & Campbell warned of the increasing potential for liability with the rising value of data to companies for compliance efforts around the world. “Hazard data is the new globally currency,” she advised delegates.