European Union Responsible Care

Despite the effort that has gone into implementing Responsible Care globally, public perception of the industry is still very low. Probably not surprising. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) tested the blood of 14 European Union Environmental Ministers to determine levels of persistent chemicals (they all had man-made chemicals in their blood) and recent studies have indicated that Arctic animals have high levels of the brominated compounds that are typically used as fire retardants. With that kind of news in the media, it is hard to imagine a positive industry image. 

These agreements, dating from the 1970s, are integrated into the TRANSAID Convention, which is the French Chemical Industries Union s (UIC) commitment to progress ( responsible care ), which applies not only to French authorities in the case of an accident during the transport of hazardous materials in France, but also to authorities in European countries within the framework of the ICE network (International Chemical Environment), started by the CEFIC (Conseil Europeen des Industries Chimiques). In the latter, the TRANSAID file is used by the Cedre (Centre de documentation, de recherche et d expdrimentations sur les pollutions accidentelles des eaux), which is, in the name of the UIC, the French national point of contact in the ICE network. 

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