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| National Profile for Chemicals |
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| The Department of Labour Inspection has recently concluded the preparation of the National Profile of Chemicals of the Republic of Cyprus. At its meeting on 6.2.2008 the Council of Ministers approved the final document in Greek and in English and authorized the Ministry of External Affairs to submit it to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), where it will be published alongside with the Chemical Profiles of other countries.
The preparation of a National Profile by each State was suggested by the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS), with final aim being the development of a closer international cooperation on chemical safety matters. The text includes a review of the present legislation and the procedures relating to matters of chemicals management and presents in an easy and understandable manner the authorities involved.
The development of the National Profile of each Member State is also an obligation under the programme Agenda 21 (Chapter 19) of the United Nations Conference for the Environment and Development, which was held at the city of Rio in Brazil in 1992, aiming at the environmentally sound management of chemical substances.
The responsibility for preparing the National Profile of Chemicals for the Republic of Cyprus was undertaken by the Department of Labour Inspection, of the Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance, which deals with the legislation related to the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous chemicals as well as the protection from chemical agents at the work environment. All the involved government departments in charge as well as non-governmental authorities submitted their views on issues of their responsibility for the preparation of the National Profile of the Republic of Cyprus.
The preparation of the National Profile for Chemicals of the Republic of Cyprus is expected to contribute:
- To better coordination of the involved governmental departments.
- To the provision of more complete information to the public and the industry, through simple to understand descriptions related to the area of responsibility of the public departments involved.
- To a better critical analysis for the improvement of existing procedures, so that, any possible omissions or overlaps will be revealed.
- To dialogue and information exchange between governmental and non-governmental organizations.
It should be clarified here, that throughout the document the notion «Chemicals» is used, as a general term which includes chemical substances, chemical preparations as well as any other articles containing dangerous chemical substances. Furthermore, the present study does not cover the management of chemicals such as food or drugs.
Finally, it should be noted that the preparation of the National Profile is a dynamic procedure that periodically demands continuous renewal and upgrading of the text, in order to constitute an up to date and handy index for the management procedures and the legislation for chemicals in the Republic of Cyprus. |
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|  National Profile-ENGLISH.pdf (1831.71 Kb)
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