Preface The chemical industry is one of the largest industrial sectors in the world and one which poses many challenges for government regulators as inefficient regulation can have costly implications for the environment, human health, government budgets and the continued growth of this important global industry. To address this issue, recent decades have witnessed the establishment of comprehensive industrial chemicals management systems in OECD member countries. At global level, within the United Nations framework, several Multilateral Environmental Agreements were adopted between 1985 and 2013 and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, SAICM, was established in 2006. Several major chemical accidents, to mention for instance Seveso, Italy in 1976, Bhopal, India in 1984 or the Buncefield in the United Kingdom in 2005 brought the attention of the international community to the importance of undertaking actions to prevent and mitigate the consequences for the environment, human health and economy of chemical accidents.
2 . BENEFITS FROM IMPLEMENTING A CHEMICAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Š OECD 2019
The Seveso disaster was an industrial accident that occurred around 12:37 pm on 10 July, 1976, in a small chemical manufacturing plant approximately 20 kilometres north of Milan in the Lombardy region of Italy.
