Brazil's industry expects full chemicals management bill to be restored

摘要

Brazil's chemicals industry association (Abiquim) is advocating to restore the more comprehensive 2018 version of a chemicals management bill over a narrower version presented to Congress in January last year. The association, along with NGOs and officials, met with the newly-appointed rapporteur for the less comprehensive bill on 31 March to push for adoption of the 2018 text, which would establish a chemicals inventory, prioritise risk assessment and require authorisation for certain chemicals. This text - known as the Conasq text (see box) - was the result of five years of joint effort between government, industry, NGOs and academia, but was shelved when president Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019. Its replacement, as it is currently written, seeks only to establish a chemicals inventory.