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Chemicals management
The Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) was created by the International Conference on Chemical Safety held in Stockholm in April 1994. The IFCS was established as a new mechanism for cooperation among governments for the promotion of chemical risk management and the environmentally sound management of chemicals.
At is first meeting the IFCS established priorities for action for the effective implementation of Agenda 21, Chapter 19 adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992.
More recently, at the third Forum of the IFCS held in Brazil during October 2000 Australia was re-elected to the Forum Standing Committee which progresses the intersessional work of the Forum. The third Forum itself covered a wide range of subjects relevant to chemical safety. Subjects receiving particular attention during the Forum included the illegal international traffic in toxic and dangerous products, pollutant release and transfer registers, a globally harmonised system of chemical classification and labelling and listing of priority actions for the next ten years. Details of the priority actions can be found in Forum III - Final Report. The next IFCS Forum will meet in Thailand in 2003.
IFCS promotes a range of activities. For instance, the IFCS in conjunction with UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) promotes the development of a 'National Profile of Chemicals Management Infrastructure' by each government. A National Profile is designed to help a country to take a snapshot of its chemical management processes and in so doing gain a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of its chemicals management infrastructure.
The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has assisted a number of countries in the Asia/Pacific region to develop their own profiles and published a National Profile of Australia's Chemicals Management Infrastructure in 1998.