By Pesticide Action Network Philippines

A new system for the classification and labeling of chemicals has been developed and is now available for implementation in countries worldwide, including the Philippines. This system is an initiative to promote common, consistent criteria for classifying chemicals according to their health, physical and environmental hazards, and to develop compatible labeling and safety data sheets for workers, consumers, farmers, transporters, and the general public.

Chemicals pose a real danger to human health and the environment throughout its life cycle - from production and handling to transport, use and disposal. People of all ages, from all social classes, are confronted daily with dangerous chemical products. The most vulnerable groups include children, the uneducated, and the poor. To address this danger, governments have decided to harmonize existing communication systems on chemicals in order to develop a single, globally harmonized system to address classification of chemicals, labels, and safety data sheets.

The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS) is an international standard for chemical classification and hazard communication. The ultimate goal of GHS is to ensure that information on chemical hazards is made available to farmers, workers, and consumers in a harmonized and comprehensible format, on labels and safety data sheets, in countries around the world. The twin goals of the GHS are to enhance public health and environmental protection, and reduce barriers to trade. The GHS is a voluntary system, in that it does not impose binding treaty obligations on countries, but to the extent that countries adopt the GHS into national regulatory requirements it will be binding on the regulated community. In the Philippines, a National Implementation Strategy on GHS is currently being developed. Once completed, different government agencies in the consumer, agriculture, transport, and labor sectors will implement the new classification and labeling system.

The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, or Earth Summit), the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) have all endorsed the need for the GHS. The IFCS and WSSD set a goal of 2008 for its implementation.

Pesticide Action Network Philippines (PAN Philippines), an NGO working for many years on pesticide-related issues, has been participating in government-led activities toward the development of a National Implementation Strategy for the GHS. As part of the activities supporting the implementation of GHS, PAN Philippines, in collaboration with the Board of Investments (BOI) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), will be conducting a workshop on the GHS for civil society groups in the agriculture sector, on October 13, 2006 at Herbana Farms in Calamba, Laguna.