Chemical management and control strategies: experiences from the GTZ pilot project on chemical safety in Indonesian small and medium-sized enterprises.

In 1998 the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) launched the Convention Project on Chemical Safety in developing countries. The project aims to support developing countries in the implementation of the Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, create human resources and institutional capacities and to demonstrate via pilot measures how chemical safety in the partner countries can be improved and sustainably implemented in line with international standards. With this objective the development of a Chemical Management Guide (CM Guide) for small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries has been initiated. The guide describes a step-by-step approach which is based on identifying 'hot-spots' as a first step, and making a chemical inventory as a second step. The third step is the continuous improvement of chemical management. In total, there are six tools that aim to support the chemical management process: basic concepts for risk assessment; description of control approaches; using material safety data sheets (MSDSs); risk phrases for hazardous substances; safety phrases for hazardous substances; symbols used for labelling hazardous substances. In the course of the test-implementation of the CM Guide in Indonesia, it was found that MSDSs were not available in most of the smaller companies. In contrast, medium-sized and larger companies do have more MSDSs available. It was also found that the way to engage the minds of company owners and managers is with economic arguments related to the loss, waste and expiry of materials, and quality standards expected from importing countries.