ILO activities in the area of chemical safety

Abstract

The ILO has been active in the area of safety in the use of chemicals at work since the year of its creation in 1919, including the development of international treaties and other technical instruments, the provision of technical assistance to its member States, and the development of chemical safety information systems. The two key ILO standards in this area are the Conventions on safety in the use of chemicals at work (No. 170, 1990), and the Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents (No. 174, 1993). The ILO Programme on occupational safety, health and environment (Safe Work) is currently responsible for ILO chemical safety activities. In the past two decades, most of ILO work in this area has been carried out within the context of inter-agency collaboration frameworks linking the ILO, WHO, UNEP, FAO, UNIDO, UNITAR, and the OECD, including the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS), the Inter-Organisation Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC), and the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS). Apart from the regular development, updating and dissemination of chemical safety information data bases such as the IPCS International Chemical Cards, the elaboration of a Globally harmonized system for the classification and labelling of Chemicals (GHS) has been the most outstanding achievement of this international collaboration on chemical safety.