Wallström opens ECHA's conference centre and calls for a UN Chemicals panel

08-Apr-2009 - Finland

The European CHemicals Agency (ECHA) inaugurated its new conference centre on Friday 3 April. In the event, the European Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström called for a new high level UN panel to tackle the risks from chemicals.

ECHA’s conference centre is one of the most modern meeting facilities in Helsinki. It will house the numerous meetings which are required to implement the new EU chemicals regulation REACH. The centre has two main conference rooms and can hold up to 200 people. At the occasion, a lively debate with 100 students of chemistry, toxicology and environmental sciences was hosted in the centre.

Geert Dancet, Executive Director of ECHA, said: “the Conference rooms in the new Centre are named after Margot Wallström and Guido Sacconi. We had no hesitation in deciding to name the two conference rooms after the two people who were so pivotal in getting REACH onto the statute books”.

Vice-President Wallström called for: “a new UN panel with independent researchers to tackle the risks from chemicals in the same way that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is doing for climate change”.

Dr Thomas Jakl, Chairman of ECHA’s Management Board, in response to a question from the students about the role of consumers said: “civil society has a tremendous role to play. Be active, seek out information on chemicals, look at ECHA’s website, ask manufacturers what is in the products that you buy. Man made chemicals are in the blood of every single one of us – they should be a matter of concern for us all.”

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/99465/wallstroem-opens-echa-s-conference-centre-and-calls-for-a-un-chemicals-panel.html