will help companies to ensure a more efficient management of chemicals and to substitute hazardous substances

Make substitution happen

The outputs of the international seminar in Riga are ready!

Reducing our exposure to harmful substances requires  actions by all sectors of society, including public authorities, private citizens, and the business sector. Companies have an especially important role to play when it comes to – improving their chemicals risk management and replacing harmful substances by less harmful alternatives.

International seminar 69_small.jpgThree international projects with a shared goal of reducing human and environmental exposure to harmful substances, NonHazCity, LIFE AskREACH and LIFE Fit for REACH, joined with invited experts at an international seminar in Riga last October. Seminar participants discussed ways to motivate and support chemical substitution by companies, and the challenges and opportunities involved.

The increasing globalisation of supply chains makes chemicals risk management  complicated and time consuming for companies, requiring resources and expertise as well as continuity and patience, in particular where information from the supply chain is needed for down-stream users. Awareness raising, capacity building, (global) communication standards as well as potentially extended legal communication requirements and IT-tools are needed to improve supply chain communications that lead to optimized substitution of harmful substances.

The outputs from the event are now ready in the form of a policy paper Enhance substitution and support better chemicals risk management and a summary of policy recommendations.