Latin America Forum Unveils Chemical Management Document Series

Latin American countries have been constantly improving their chemical management instruments in the last few years. Among several meetings and discussions, countries are motivated to pursue the implementation of their national chemical policy.

The Latin American Regulatory Cooperation Forum (LARCF) has been front running with events and cooperation partnerships in the region, bringing together more than 100 regional industry members. The most recent meeting (April 2022) once again shed light on the risk approach to chemical management, highlighting the importance of national chemical inventories.

In the published document, Risk Approach in the Management of Industrial Chemical Substances and Products – Inventories, the Forum explains the importance of chemical inventories in driving chemical policies forward. However, it recognizes that inventories need to be accompanied by mechanisms to identify substances and mixtures offering unreasonable risks to health and the environment, i.e., substance prioritization, risk assessment, and measures for risk management.

The report also insists that governments develop inventories open to data exchange as individual and isolated inventories often bring duplication of data, delay trades, and increased expenses. The OECD Mutual Acceptance of Data (MAD) is pointed out as a solution in this case.

LARCF has already published a Roadmap for Sound Management of Industrial Chemicals in September 2020 and seeks future publications and guidelines related to substance prioritization, risk assessment, and risk management.

From a regional perspective, only Chile and Colombia have implemented their national chemical inventories. In contrast, other countries still have to figure out their implementing regulations and/or ways to drive the process forward in the political scenario.