The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals—Explaining the Legal Implementation Gap

Linn Persson,Åsa Persson,Adelene Lai,Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen,Stephen Fick

doi:10.3390/su9122176

Linn Persson, Åsa Persson + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su9122176

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Abstract

The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is a system for classifying and labelling chemicals according to their intrinsic hazardous properties. The GHS is one of the cornerstones of sound chemicals management, an issue consistently on the international sustainable development agenda since 1992. In 2002, it was agreed under the United Nations that all countries should be encouraged to implement the GHS by 2008. However, to date, it is unclear where, how, and to what extent the GHS has been implemented and what factors best explain any differences in implementation coverage. The aim of this paper is to provide a global overview of current GHS implementation status in national legislation using primary and secondary data, and explain differences between countries based on theory on motivational and capacity-related factors for implementation of international standards. We conclude that there seems to be broad support from countries for enhanced international collaboration in the field of sound chemicals management. However, several drivers and barriers for national GHS implementation co-exist, and there is a clear positive correlation between the financial and regulatory capacities of a country and its GHS implementation status. At the same time, our data suggest that it is possible to increase the global implementation coverage by using a combination of motivational and capacity related strategies.

Highlights

Efforts to manage risks originating from the use and emissions of hazardous chemicals have led to the incremental development of an international chemicals regime containing both hard and soft law [1,2]
We find that of the countries which have implemented GHS, WTO members make up a larger share (38%) compared to among non-WTO members (15%) (Table 2) and there is an association between WTO membership and GHS implementation (X2 = 5.66, df = 1, p = 0.017)
We have shown that there are significant regional differences in GHS implementation coverage

Summary

Introduction

Efforts to manage risks originating from the use and emissions of hazardous chemicals have led to the incremental development of an international chemicals regime containing both hard and soft law [1,2]. The hard law components such as international treaties are often targeting specific substances or groups of substances, or certain specific activities such as transboundary movements of hazardous waste. It is, only a very limited number of chemicals that are regulated through an international treaty, compared to the more than one hundred thousand substances currently on the market [3]. Some regime components of more soft law character are broader in nature and aim at supporting overall preventive chemicals management. The characteristics of a given chemical (e.g., type of toxicity) have to be established in order to take the necessary steps to regulate and manage it safely and sustainably throughout its life cycle

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