The Department of Environmental Affairs issued a request that companies who produced, used, imported or exported chemicals listed in the Annexures A and B of the Notice submit information on the prescribed templates by 17 November 2015.
This information will be used in the development of the National Chemicals Profile with a particular focus on chemicals controlled by multilateral environmental agreements (ie international agreements or conventions).
According to the Notice its objectives are:
- To establish a baseline on the quantities of chemicals produced, used, imported or exported by the country over the given period
- To develop a database of all producers, users, importers and exporters of chemicals used in the country
- To allow the development of the chemicals inventory
- To allow the development of the regulatory framework that will address the existing gaps and ensure that systems are developed to better manage the chemicals in the country.
The Department has undertaken in the Notice that:
- The information received in response to this request would be handled with strict confidentiality
- The information about the company’s details and the information will not be presented in the report but only the contributions by the sector will be presented
- This information will not be used to prosecute.