COVER FEATURE
INGENIEUR
Chemical Information Management System : Online Inventory of Hazardous Chemicals
By Ts . Hazlina Yon Department of Occupational Safety and Health , Malaysia
Chemicals are important in our daily life . Around 100,000 chemical substances are found in products or on the market . It is estimated that developing countries will produce 31 % and use 33 % of global chemicals . If improperly managed , chemicals and the pollution linked with their manufacture , use , and disposal come at a cost to the economy , human health and the environment . Occupational exposure to hazardous substances causes an estimated 651,000 known deaths annually , mostly in the developing world , a figure that may be greatly underestimated in many countries ( UNEP , 2006 ).
Governments worldwide established chemical safety guidelines and regulations , and the United Nations with other international organisations worked to promote the safe use of chemical products globally in line with the adoption of the Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development ( UNCED ) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 . New tools such as the Globally Harmonised System ( GHS ) of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals , pollutant release and transfer registers have been developed . These developments have been further enhanced after the World Summit on Sustainable Development ( WSSD ) in 2002 . The resolution of WSSD is to achieve by 2020 the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle , and of hazardous waste in ways that lead to minimisation of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment ( UNEP , 2006 ).
Sound chemicals management plays an important role in the implementation of sustainable development goals in terms of protection of human health and environment . Malaysia emphasises the sound management of chemicals through legislation , guidelines , and industry code of practice since the ratification of various chemical conventions and some international obligations . Year 2006 marked the history of chemical management commitments in Malaysia when two committees were formed . They were the Environmentally Hazardous Substances Steering Committee ( EHSSC ) and the National Co-ordinating Committee on the Implementation of GHS ( NCCGHS ). The EHSSC oversees and facilitates activities under various conventions while monitoring Environmental Hazardous Substances ( EHS ) in Malaysia . The NCCGHS was established on August 3 , 2006 and was chaired by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry ( MITI ) ( Ministry of NRE & LESTARI UKM , 2011 ).
The role of NCCGHS was to co-ordinate GHS implementation in Malaysia , particularly in four sectors : industrial workplace , agriculture , consumer and transport sectors . In order to meet the first target year for worldwide GHS implementation in 2008 , the four sectors were assigned to four different agencies through the NCCGHS . These are listed in Table 1 . The
6 VOL 86 APRIL-JUNE 2021