In Great Britain, the two major areas of legislation that impact on the provision of Chemical Hazards information are the Chemicals (Hazard Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 2002 (SI 2002 No. 1689  as amended – in short CHIP3 or just CHIP and also know as "the Supply Regulations ) and the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2007 (SI 2007 No 1573)(known 'officially' in short as CDG 2007) as corrected (Note: these corrections only apply to hard copy purchased copies).”. Similar, but separate, Regulations apply in Northern Ireland. The supply regulations deal with the duty of the supplier to his customer and the transport regulations with the duty of both the consignor and the carrier in the carriage of chemicals. The transport legislation deals predominately with chemicals but also with articles (e.g. matches).

In a broader context, exporters of chemicals need to be aware of the various transport regulations, ADR (Road), RID (Rail), IMDG Code (Sea), and ICAO Technical Instructions/IATA (Air). And when exporting outside the EU, of the presence of local regulations concerning such matters as safety data sheets and local chemical inventories and the obligations placed on exporters by international agreements such as EC No. 304/2003,  which deals with the export of chemicals to countries outside the EC,  and the Chemical Weapons convention.

The supply and carriage regulations are totally separate pieces of legislation but there is  some interaction between them – Section 14 of the SDS required by the supply regulations needs information from the carriage classification for instance. Hazard criteria can differ between the two sets of legislation, flash point limits for flammability for instance, and the chemical names used can differ.

There is also interaction between the supply regulations and other legislation; an example are the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (SI 2002 No 2677 as amended – COSHH)  where the safety data sheet is the primary source of information when carrying out a workplace risk assessment where chemicals are involved. Further examples are the Notification of New Substances Regulations  1993  (SI 1993 No. 3050 -  NONS)  and the proposed REACH regulations (see right hand panel).

The Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), now at its 1st revision, has been the subject of more than a decade of work; its aim is to provide a framework to bring together the various national and regional hazard communication systems which control the  supply of hazardous chemicals in much the same way that the ‘Orange Book’ offers a global framework for the transport of dangerous goods. The purpose of GHS is to provide a single, globally harmonized system to address classification of chemicals, labels, and safety data sheets. The first edition of GHS was published in July 2003 as the ‘Purple Book’. The files comprising revision 1 of the Purple Book can also be downloaded from the UNECE website:

http://www.unece.org/trans/danger/publi/ghs/ghs_rev00/00files_e.html

The European Union (EU) proposes to harmonise its provisions with the GHS.  For supply this, it is proposed, will be via a new directly acting EU Regulation (made under the European Community (EC) Treaty’s Article 95).  This  is currently proposed to be called  “REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on Classification and Labelling of Substances and Mixtures based on the Globally Harmonised System (EU C & L Regulation) ”.

Internet consultation on a Commission draft for their expected formal proposal to Council and the EP was held in Autumn 2006 (closing date for comments 21 October) and formal proposal and final Regulation are expected in occur in due course.  See EU website at http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/reach/ghs_consultation_en.htm.  A useful Table of Contents for the proposed new Regulation is available to CHCS Members in the “Members Pages” section of this website.

The Chemical Hazards Communication Society provides a number of services to assist those who need to stay up-to-date with this diversity of national and international regulations. CHCS organises a training course for Safety Data Sheet writers, symposia on a broad range of chemical hazard related topics and provides an e-mail Forum where information can be exchanged and questions asked and answered.