The chemical industry: how safe and how environmentally regulated?


The chemical industry: how safe and how environmentally regulated?

Safety must be at the top of the chemical industry’s agenda and for good reason. Many of its products are potentially hazardous at some stage during their manufacture and transport. These chemicals may be solids, liquids or gases, flammable, explosive, corrosive and/or toxic. 

Manufacturing processes frequently involve high temperatures, high pressures, and reactions which can be dangerous unless carefully controlled. Because of this the industry operates within the safety limits demanded by national and international legislation.







 Risks and injuries 



In spite of dealing with hazardous operations, the chemical industry actually has a lower number of accidents than industry as a whole. Between 1995 and 2005, across the whole of European manufacture of all types, there were over 4 injuries for every 1000 employees, twice that sustained in the chemical industry.




US data, recorded as days lost due to accidents, show an even starker difference; the number of days lost in major companies in the chemical industry through accidents is 4 times less than in manufacturing generally.


Environmental regulations


There are serious concerns about the potential impact of certain manufactured chemicals on living organisms, including ourselves, and on the natural environment. These concerns include air, land and sea pollution, global warming and climate change, ozone depletion of the upper atmosphere and acid rain.




The chemical industry has a world-wide initiative entitled Responsible Care. It began in Canada in 1984 and is practiced now in over 60 countries. It commits national chemical industry associations and companies to:




Continuously improve the environmental, health, safety and security knowledge and performance of our technologies, processes and products over their life cycles so as to avoid harm to people and the environmentUse resources efficiently and minimise wasteReport openly on performance, achievements and short comings Listen, engage and work with people to understand and address their concerns and expectationsCooperate with governments and organisations in the development and implementation of effective regulations and standards, and to meet or go beyond themProvide help and advice to foster the responsible management of chemicals by all those who manage and use them along the product chain.


In the US, chemical companies spend over $ 12 billion a year on environmental, health and safety programs. This has, for example, has led to the reduction of hazardous releases to the air, land and water by over 70 percent over the last 40 years. 

Another environmental measure concerns the use of energy. In the 20 years from 1990, the chemical industry in the US saved energy at the average rate of 2.1% and in Europe at more than 4%. This also reduces the emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, at a rate of nearly 2.5% and 6% per annum in the US and EU, respectively.


Regulations are in force in every major country. In Europe, they are enforced through REACH (Registration, Evaluation Authorisation and restriction of Chemicals). They are fundamentally changing the way chemicals are made, sold and used, by providing a single standardised framework for the safe management of chemicals. 


REACH places the responsibility on both manufacturers and importers to ensure that all chemicals produced in quantities greater than one tonne a year do not adversely affect human health or the environment. The industry provides comprehensive documented information for all qualifying chemicals and related substances, enabling users of the chemicals to ensure that adequate controls are in place. 

Chemicals which are produced in amounts of 1000 tonnes or more per year must have been registered by December 2010 and those greater than 1 tonne must be registered by June 2018.





Only a small proportion of chemical wastes are toxic or hazardous. Most of these, together with materials which resist natural breakdown, are incinerated at high temperature. Whenever possible, the waste itself provides the fuel for this process. The gases produced are thoroughly cleaned and ‘scrubbed’ before release into the atmosphere, leaving only ash for disposal. Examples of how by-products are dealt with are seen throughout the units on this web site.




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