ICCA: Flexible Organization for the Global Chemical Industry

Mara Caboara
International Council of
Chemical Associations

Introduction
The chemical industry is one of the world's most successful, competitive and essential business sectors. It provides literally million of jobs, both directly and indirectly, and has estimated annual sales of over US$1.6 trillion. The industry produces many products that play a major role in the improvement of quality of life, in areas such as health, agriculture, clothing, construction, transport and leisure.

However, chemicals can also create negative impacts on human health and the environment, and are increasingly the object of scrutiny on the part of civil society, international organizations and governments. In 1989, to respond to these demands, the national associations of the main chemical producers set up the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA).

ICCA's Role
As with all industry organizations, the function and objectives of the ICCA are varied. At the beginning of its activities (in the early 1990s), the ICCA's main role was to exchange information within the chemical industry on issues relevant to its members, with a special focus on environmental and trade issues. In a nutshell, it acted as an information provider.

In a second phase, the industry realized that the increase in external developments required a more pro-active approach, and set up to dialogue with policy-makers and develop position statements on international regulations concerning the chemical industry. To date, the ICCA has issued more than 50 position papers on matters of health, safety, and the environment; international transport safety; intellectual property; and trade policy. To promote its positions, the ICCA also acts as a mouthpiece of the chemical industry vis-à-vis various international organizations such as the United Nations (UN)‚ the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD).

Last but not least, the ICCA promotes and co-ordinates a wide range of voluntary initiatives, from Responsible Care® - the chemical industry's flagship commitment to continuously improve its health, safety and environmental performances, discussed in greater detail below - to the Long-Range Initiative and the High Production Volume Chemicals (HPV) program (see below: The ICCA Initiatives).

How the ICCA is Organized
The ICCA has a flexible structure (see Figure 1), working through a "virtual" Secretariat composed of permanent staffers from the German, European and American chemical associations, and a rotating Secretariat, alternating between Europe and the United States at two-year intervals. The current ICCA Secretariat is held by the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic).

The ICCA also has two high-level governing bodies - the ICCA Steering Committee and the Board, and four technical bodies responsible for Heath Safety and the Environment, Trade, Chlorine and the co-ordination of the Responsible Care® program.

The ICCA Steering Committee includes the chief executives of the Council's member associations. The Board includes the chief executives plus leading corporate executives from Council associations, usually the elected officers of the association. Much of the ICCA's work is carried out by e-mail and conference calls; all working material is posted on the ICCA extranet site.

ICCA meetings are hosted by Council members and held at various locations throughout the world.

Membership
ICCA members are a coalition of leading chemical industry associations, from the world's main regions, accounting for more than 80 percent of chemical manufacturing operations with a production exceeding US$1.6 trillion annually. The ICCA has no direct company members, but company experts contribute to the activities of its Working Groups, and are indirectly informed about ICCA initiatives through their national chemical associations.

To become a member of the ICCA, an association must be the leading chemical industry organization in their country, be committed to Responsible Care, support free trade and a series of international environmental agreements, including the Prior Informed Consent and Persistent Organic Pollutants, and the Chemicals Weapon Convention. The current ICCA members are the chemical associations from the following regions or countries: Europe; United States, Canada and Mexico; Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile; Japan; Australia and New Zealand; and South Africa.

The ICCA Initiatives
Responsible Care®

Responsible Care® was established in 1985 by the Canadian Chemical Producers' Association (CCPA), and is the most significant initiative undertaken by the ICCA in its thirteen-year history. Participation is a membership requirement of the ICCA, which requires member companies to strive to "continuously improve the industry's responsible management of chemicals." To date, Responsible Care® has been embraced by chemical industry associations in 46 member countries (not all full ICCA members). Companies ranging from huge multinationals with billions of dollars in revenues, to small family-owned companies with only a few employees, have adopted Responsible Care® in countries as diverse as Austria and Uruguay.

National chemical industry associations are responsible for the detailed implementation of Responsible Care® in their countries. The individual countries' Responsible Care® programs are at different stages of development and have different emphases, but are all monitored and co-ordinated by the ICCA, which assists the cross-fertilization of ideas and best practices. Each Responsible Care® program incorporates the following eight fundamental features: a formal commitment on behalf of each company to a set of Guiding Principles signed, in the majority of cases, by the Chief Executive Officer; a series of codes, guidance notes, and checklists to assist companies to implement the commitment; the progressive development of indicators against which improvements in performance can be measured; an ongoing process of communications on health, safety and environment matters with interested parties inside and outside the industry; provision of forums in which companies can share views and exchange experiences on implementation of the commitment; adoption of a title and a logo which clearly identify national programs as being consistent with and part of the concept of Responsible Care®; consideration of how best to encourage all member companies to commit to and participate in Responsible Care®; and systematic procedures to verify the implementation of the measurable elements of Responsible Care® by the member companies. The last feature, verification, was incorporated into the program in 1996.

However, the initiative is much more than simply a checklist of activities that a company must undertake: it is an "ethic" for chemical businesses that fundamentally changes the way to think and act. Much of the ethic has to do with the relationships between companies and the communities in which they operate. Companies adopting Responsible Care® are encouraged to reach out to the community, and instead of downplaying concerns, to seek out and to address them. It is a commitment by every Responsible Care® company, made by their most senior executive and carried out by all employees, to the responsible management of chemicals throughout their entire life cycle.

The Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI)

The Long-Range Research Initiative (LRI) is a global research program aimed at improving risk assessment methodology and filling gaps in the understanding of the effects of chemicals on human health and the environment. It is co-ordinated by the ICCA, carried out in collaboration with academia and government, and funded jointly by Cefic (the European Chemical Industry Council), ACC (the U.S. Chemical Manufacturers Association) and JCIA (the Japan Chemical Industry Association) with a yearly budget of US$25 million, for at least five years. The broad areas covered include endocrine disruption, exposure assessment, risk assessment methodologies, respiratory and immunotoxicity and chemical carcinogenicity.

The first public announcement on the LRI was made in 1999, at the Third World Health Organization Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, in London, when Luciano Respini (chief executive officer of Dow Europe) gave a keynote presentation. He addressed the program's importance for the chemical industry and its relevance to the WHO's Environment and Health Research Programme for Europe.

The LRI aims to achieve the following:

• Provide scientific facts relevant to issues of public concern;
• Offer new insights into managing risks and reducing uncertainties;
• Present government with information as a foundation for laws and regulations;
• Enable industry to respond more quickly and effectively to emerging concerns;
• Ensure the views of the chemical industry are substantiated by high quality science;
• Underpin the development of safe and sustainable products;
• Support more research than could be achieved by individual companies; and
• Demonstrate a clear and continued commitment to the industry's Responsible Care® initiative.

In addition to the above goals, requests for proposals for research have been issued to cover certain areas including: chemical carcinogenesis, marine risk assessment and ecosystem dynamics, environmental exposure modeling, uncertainty analysis in risk assessment, respiratory toxicology and immunotoxicology, human exposure, and endocrine disruption.

The research is being conducted by internationally recognized, independent research experts. An External Science Advisory Panel, comprised of leading scientists from academia and research institutes, is overseeing the program to ensure its scientific integrity. Results of the research will be published in peer-reviewed journals and communicated widely and openly via workshops, open literature and the Internet.

High Production Volume (HPV) Chemicals

Many governments and other stakeholders feel that the availability of relevant hazard and risk information is unsatisfactory. Special concerns are related to High Production Volume (HPV) chemicals, i.e., chemicals with a production of > 1000 tons a year in at least two world regions (e.g., Europe and Asia). In October 1998, the chemical industry launched, through ICCA, a global initiative to provide harmonized, internationally agreed upon data on the intrinsic hazards of and initial hazard assessments for approximately 1,000 HPV substances by the end of 2004. This initiative is made in co-ordination with the OECD, which also has an HPV program in place.

Once these common elements are established, then risk assessment and risk management of specific substances will, in general, be carried out at regional of national level.

The increasing use and exposure are triggering the necessity for more extensive data and a more sound assessment of the hazards and risks. Therefore the ICCA, in agreement with the OECD, selected out of the ICCA working list some priority chemicals. These priority chemicals were selected on the basis of their widespread use or exposure, as well as their intrinsic properties of concern. "Intrinsic properties of concern" generally means toxicological and/or ecotoxicological end-point properties which raise concern (like chronic toxicity, mutagenicity etc, or high aquatic toxicity). These properties lead to the definition of hazard categories, according to which chemicals are classified.

The following parameters for the initiative have been established:

• The initiative should take into account all of the 5,100 chemicals in the OECD HPV list;
  
• SIDS (Screening Information Sets) data are to be regarded as a basis for the testing process;
  
• The aim initially is to complete the SIDS data for 1,000 chemicals by the end of 2004;
  
• A significant portion of the world's chemical production will thus be covered; and
  
• Hazard assessment is a necessary but insufficient basis for management actions - it will provide valuable data for subsequent prioritization and risk assessment.

To be of the greatest value, the publicly available information will be contained in a single database repository. ICCA members are working closely with the authorities in their region, according to a work program managed by the ICCA Secretariat.

Global Chemicals Strategy

In December 2001, to counteract the increasingly hostile attitude toward the supposed lack of chemicals data, the ICCA launched a new global initiative aimed at developing, and making public, information on chemical hazards, uses and exposures. As a result of the initiative, ICCA members commit to:

• Prioritize existing chemicals based on use and exposure patterns in the context of a chemical's hazards, and in particular identify priorities for risk characterization and management;
• Characterize the risks of chemicals wherever necessary along the chain of commerce, and communicate relevant information so that all parties producing, distributing or using the chemicals can contribute appropriately to such assessments and apply them to manage risks and foster the safe handling and use of chemicals;
• With the involvement of downstream industry, government and other committed stakeholders, establish policies regarding acceptable levels of risk, and develop and validate new, alternative methodologies for evaluating hazard and exposure, characterizing risk, and evaluating emerging scientific issues; and
• Support public access to appropriate and meaningful information, while protecting legitimate corporate interests in technical or commercial information. Although the exact mechanisms of public access may differ, the system should provide sufficient information to demonstrate that the risks of chemicals have been considered and relevant action taken. The public should have access to information that puts hazard information into context with exposure information.

The ICCA global chemicals strategy initiative will be implemented at the regional/national level, and further elaboration of its implementation will be developed in the course of 2002.