What is SAICM
Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management:
The SAICM is a policy tool that was endorsed by over 100 governments, as well as environment, labor and health
organizations, in February 2006, with the overarching SAICM goal to change how chemicals are produced and used in
order to minimize their harmful effects on human health and the environment.
The United Nations Environment Programme - Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management
Adopted by the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM) on 6 February 2006 in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) is an international policy
framework to foster the sound management of chemicals.
The Strategic Approach:
In 2006, governments and stakeholders adopted a new global policy and strategy called the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). The objective of this Strategic Approach is to change how chemicals are produced and used in order to minimize harmful effects on human health and the environment.
The SAICM was adopted by a consensus of Environment Ministers, Health Ministers and other delegates from more than one hundred governments participating in the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM), held in Dubai, February 2006. The Conference was organized by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) with active support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international agencies with chemicals-related programs.
Public health and environmental advocacy NGOs from all regions also participated in the ICCM and in the preparatory meetings leading up to it. Representatives of international trade union federations participated, as did trade associations representing chemical and pesticide manufacturing industries and metals and mining industries. In the end, all Conference participants joined with the representatives of governments and international agencies in approving the SAICM by consensus. The SAICM is not a legally-binding treaty. It does, however, constitute a global political commitment on the part of governments and others that recognizes health and environmental harms caused by chemical exposure and that pledges effective action to reform how chemicals are produced and used in order to minimize that harm.
A Commitment to Achieving Chemical Safety
In adopting the SAICM, governments and other participants in the ICCM agreed that improved measures are needed to prevent harmful effects of chemicals on the health of children, pregnant women, fertile populations, the elderly, the poor, workers and other vulnerable groups and susceptible environments. They noted that some progress has been made in chemicals management, but declared that progress has not been sufficient globally, and that the environment worldwide continues to suffer from air, water and land contamination that impairs the health and welfare of millions.
Participants in the International Conference agreed that the overall objective of the SAICM is to:"achieve the sound management of chemicals throughout their life cycle so that, by 2020, chemicals are used and produced in ways that lead to the minimization of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment." They declared their firm commitment to the Strategic Approach and its implementation and pledged to work with civil society and others in a spirit of solidarity and partnership to achieve chemical safety and thereby to assist in fighting poverty, protecting vulnerable groups, and advancing public health and human security.
The International Conference agreed that the need for action is heightened by a wide range of chemical safety concerns, including: a lack of capacity for managing chemicals in developing countries and countries with economies in transition; dependency on pesticides in agriculture; exposure of workers to harmful chemicals; and concerns about long-term health effects. It recognized that global production, trade and use of chemicals are rapidly increasing, and it agreed that this places a particular burden on developing countries and countries with economies in transition. It also agreed that the sound management of chemicals is essential to countries at all levels of development and that fundamental changes in the way that societies manage chemicals are urgently needed.
The SAICM as a Useful Tool
NGOs and other civil society organizations in all regions have been actively campaigning in support of chemical safety for many years. In large part, the decision by governments and others to negotiate and adopt the SAICM can be seen as a response to pressures and demands from global civil society. It is well known, of course, that lofty statements and agreements adopted at intergovernmental meetings do not, by themselves, solve the world's problems. Nonetheless, the SAICM is potentially very useful as a tool that civil society in all countries can utilize in their efforts to advance chemical safety objectives. This booklet will provide some background that will help put the SAICM into its historical context; it will then describe in some detail what the SAICM actually is; it will present ways that NGOs and civil society can make use of the SAICM; and it will conclude with the text of a Global Civil Society Statement on the SAICM that NGOs and other organizations in all countries are invited to review and to endorse.
UNEP News Release:
New Global Chemicals Strategy Given Green Light by Governments
9th Special Session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme/Global Ministerial Environment Forum
Dubai/Nairobi, 7 February 2006 -
A new global initiative aimed at making chemicals safer for humans and the planet was agreed
today at an international conference in Dubai.
Called the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management or SAICM, the new initiative covers risk assessments of
chemicals and harmonized labeling up to tackling obsolete and stockpiled products.
It also carries provisions for national centres aimed at helping countries, especially in the developing world, train staff in
chemical safety including dealing with spills and accidents.
The initiative contained in the Dubai Declaration and agreed to by over 100 environment and health ministers puts the globe on
track to meet a commitment made at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.
Here governments agreed to aim to use and produce chemicals in ways that minimize adverse effects to health and the environment.
It is among the first concrete outcomes of the 2005 World Summit held in New York in September attended by heads of state.
SAICM, a voluntary agreement, comes at a time when global chemical production is set to climb by as much as 80 per cent over the
next 15 years.
Between 70,000 and 100,000 chemicals may be already on the market with an estimated 1,500 new ones being marketed each year.
Meanwhile chemical production is shifting from the developed to the developing world.
Klaus Toepfer, said: "If the past is our guide, some seemingly benign products can prove to have deleterious impacts. Meanwhile
developing countries need help in terms of the better use, handling and disposal of chemicals. So we must use the best science and
treat chemicals with respect,".
