Finnish capital to host chemicals forum in May

As Turkey braces for potential problems in the export of some chemical substances to the European Union, a Helsinki forum will focus on chemicals issues this coming May.

The Helsinki Chemicals Forum, or HCF, will be held on May 20 and 21 next year and will discuss whether REACH, the European Community Regulation on chemicals and their safe use, can become a global model. The forum will be held partly under the auspices of the European Chemicals Agency, or ECHA, which is based in the city.

The idea to launch a chemicals forum in Helsinki emerged as the result of the hope that Finland will one day become the chemicals capital of Europe, Hannu Vornamo, secretary-general of HCF, said during a press conference in Helsinki last week.

REACH focuses on the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemical substances. The new law entered into force on June 1, 2007.

Vornamo said the forum is necessary to enforce REACH legislation across Europe in a unified way because it would be difficult to force national authorities to implement the legislation otherwise.

The HCF invites national and international authorities, companies and industry associations, international organizations, nongovernmental bodies, human interest groups and academia for an open dialog to contribute to sustainable solutions for environmental problems and consumer concerns.

Speaking on Helsinki’s growing importance in terms of chemicals, Vornamo said, “Several countries have founded offices here: China, India, Turkey… They have small units here and more will come.” Chemistry as a science will play a key role in solving the challenges of sustainable development and global problems over the next decades, he said.

Complementing REACH’s work is the Helsinki Reach Centre, or HRC. Annemaria Ojanperä, the HRC’s program manager, said the center was comprised of both non-EU industry and REACH specialists as it aimed to support non-EU industry associations and companies in fulfilling REACH’s requirements.

REACH has become an agenda item in Turkey because of the chemical boron. The substance, which has been restricted by REACH, is found in large quantities in Turkey. The country has objected to boron’s classification as a hazardous substance, saying that the ruling was based solely on experiments with mice.

In the tests, mice were directly injected with large quantities of boron; humans, however, would never consume pure boron, Turkey has argued.

Busy agenda for 2010

REACH and Classification, Labeling and Packaging, or CLP, regulations will ensure a high level of protection of both human health and the environment from chemical substances across Europe, ECHA Executive Director Geert Dancet said. Because chemicals must be registered before Dec. 1, 2010, next year promises to be a busy year for REACH. In this respect, the forum will provide an opportunity to reflect on the bigger picture of chemical safety globally.

During the pre-registration, the agency received 2.75 million pre-registrations, and 146,000 different substances were pre-registered, according to Andreas Herdina, director of cooperation at ECHA.

In 2010, the HCF will focus on other themes related to chemicals while its forum will be addressed by former Finnish President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari and former Nobel Prize for Chemistry winner Paul J. Crutzen.

The Helsinki Chemicals Forum is organized by the Chemicals Forum Association in cooperation with the European Commission, the European Chemicals Agency, the Finnish Government and partners, including the City of Helsinki, Greater Helsinki Promotion Ltd, the Chemical Industry Federation of Finland and the University of Helsinki.