Eliminating Toxic Threats Globally and Nationally

The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) was a cooperation developed in 2002 to reduce and minimize harms from the way chemicals are produced and used. At the time, countries recognized that many chemical threats were not covered by existing global chemical conventions, so SAICM was initiated as a voluntary forum for collaborations on toxic threats.

IPEN’s contributions to SAICM helped create stronger global and national protections from toxic pesticides, harmful plastic chemicals, toxics in electronics, and many other areas. IPEN projects through SAICM included work to address toxic threats from PFAS “forever chemicals,” endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), and other hazardous substances. Through SAICM and the GFC, IPEN has called for implementing the “polluter pays” principle with a global fund for chemical safety derived from a levy on chemical makers. 

As the successor to SAICM, the GFC is now the only global agreement with the mandate to address the full range of health and environmental concerns throughout the life cycle of chemicals. It provides an umbrella framework for all other international chemical agreements and provides a platform through which all stakeholders and sectors can collaborate to address harmful chemicals. Without the GFC, no international framework would exist for addressing most of the world’s most pressing chemical safety concerns.

In addition to the GFC, IPEN and its members engage in other global forums, including the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA), the Science-Policy Panel, and others, advocating for global and national policies to protect health and the environment.