Responsible Care development

One of the six elements of Responsible Care is the Codes of Management Practice, and one of the codes is the Process Safety Code of Management Practices (34). This code emphasi2es management commitment and accountabiUty, information sharing, and community relations, but also includes 11 of the 14 specific elements of the legislated process safety management standards developed later. 

A plant team working with the Pampa fire department brought the fire under control. The Chemical Manufacturers Association s Community Awareness Emergency Response Program (CARE), developed after the Bhopal disaster was credited with effectiveness of their efforts in putting out the fire. 

Continuous flow devices have undergone careful development, and mixing chambers are very efficient. Mixing is essentially complete in about 1 ms, and half-lives as short as 1 ms may be measured. An interesting advantage of the continuous flow method, less important now than earlier, is that the analytical method need not have a fast response, since the concentrations are at steady state. Of course, the slower the detection method, the greater the volumes of reactant solutions that will be consumed. In 1923 several liters of solution were required, but now reactions can be studied with 10-100 mL. 

Both ACC and SOCMA have programs to promote good practices among their member companies in the area of chemical process safety.59 In 1989, ACC developed the Responsible Care Process Safety Code60 to prevent fires, explosions, and accidental chemical releases. The code and its accompanying resource guidelines include a series of recommended management practices. 

ACC has published a resource guide to aid member companies in implementing the Responsible Care Process Safety Code (ACC, 1989). Although the guide provides suggestions on how to continually improve process safety, it does not prescribe how to comply with the code. It does not list specific requirements for reactive hazard management, but does require management systems to be developed-several of which could apply to reactive hazards as determined by each member company. 

NACD is an association of chemical distributor companies that purchase and take title of chemical products from manufacturers.62 Member companies process, formulate, blend, repackage, warehouse, transport, and market chemical products to industrial customers. NACD has developed the Responsible Distribution Process (RDP), which is similar in concept to the ACC Responsible Care code. 

The pharmaceutical industry has no official EHS trade group that develops codes of practice equivalent to Responsible Care. 

As previously stated, the American Chemistry Council also recognizes this concept as an integral part of the code of Responsible Care , Process Safety Code of Management Practices, Companies should openly share nonproprietary results from internal process safety incident investigations and related research through the auspices of trade and professional associations, and other networking opportunities. Other organizations should strive to benefit from the lessons learned by others and keep abreast of latest developments and safety alerts. 

The chemical industry must rethink the next set of standards and not simply push Responsible Care to the next incremental step. Sustainable development means economic growth that does not deplete irreplaceable resonrces, does not destroy ecological systems, and helps reduce some of the world s gross social inequalities. 

The current reality is that most chemical companies are looking at Responsible Care, ecoefficiency, and waste reduction as their response to sustainability. The key to sustainable development is in balancing the economic concerns with the environmental and social issues. 

A developing and welcome trend is the promotion of cooling system biocides that owe much of their biocidal properties to effective on-line cleaning abilities rather than just toxicity. This trend is in part a response to increased environmental awareness but also the recognition by many operators of good housekeeping practice and Responsible Care. 

Responsible Care is the chemicals industry s contribution towards sustainable development efforts, as indicated within the strategies of SAICM. 

At the UN World Summit in 2002, Responsible Care received the World Summit Business Award which the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) s organises in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). And, at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Responsible Care was praised as an example of a successful global partnership. 

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) Community Awareness and Emergency Response (CAER) program provides comprehensive guidelines for the development and implementation of an ERP. The CAER program has been expanded to include all aspects of the chemical industry in an initiative called Responsible Care. 

Coupled with this, many P T committees have assumed the responsibility for developing policies and procedures related to pharmaceutical sales representatives. These policies are designed to ensure that the sales representatives act responsibly and provide the necessary information to the practitioners for care of patients. Further, they tend to restrict activities of sales representatives to those that provide benefit for the patient. 

Sustainable development, responsible care, and process-integrated protection of the environment are the guidelines of chemistry and the chemical industry in the new millennium. A high percentage of industrial processes are based on the catalytic transformation of substrates. The main focus of industrial research is the further development of transformation processes toward sustainability, and the use of renewable resources as substrates. 

Chapter 2 Addressing Sustainability in the Chemical Industry This chapter looks at the scope and scale of the chemical industry the industry s response to formative developments and drivers and the evolution of its signature program, Responsible Care , with a look at its current role in advancing sustainability as well as future positioning. 

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