As you know, I have just returned from a Japan and China trip.  I was in Tokyo at CPhI Japan as a guest of JPCI to talk about SPP and the ChAMP program that the EPA is proposing. The talk was well received, but I couldn’t help noticing that many of the booths at CPhI focused on REACh. Most of the questions and discussions that I seemed to be involved in, both in Tokyo and Shanghai, were somehow focused on the subject. It was clear that REACh is on everyone’s mind. The Japanese seem to understand it well - while the Chinese are still wondering. Obviously the path forward is not clear for everyone. There’s no question at least in my mind that REACh is going be to be one huge mess….

Are you ready? June 1st starts the opening for the pre-registration of chemicals. At SOCMA, we are working on guidance materials and webinars that we hope to have available early this summer. If you want to get up to date information, we have assembled a great panel for...
Read Full Article

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to visit with executives from Jiangsu Zhongdan Group Co., Ltd., and its affiliate company Synthetics China Co. in the city of Jiangsu, China which was an almost three hour car ride from Shanghai. Following the successful SOCMA and C&EN joint Gala Dinner in Shanghai on Monday night, several of us from SOCMA along with Maureen Rouhi, deputy editor-in-chief C&EN, took a tour and were hosted for lunch at the batch chemical facility of Synthetics China Co. which is an affiliate of Jiangsu Zhongdan Group.

(Photo – SOCMA’s Vice President Diane McMahon and I at the Synth...
Read Full Article

I am hearing that some smaller companies in the industry question the value of performance improvement programs. As SOCMA’s ChemStewards® program continues grow and moves into year three of its three-year cycle, I think it is a good time address why SOCMA and its members believe in environmental, health, safety and security (EHS&S) management systems.

The general sense from small companies – particularly those with owner-operators – is this: We have never had any problems, we are doing things right, so we do not need to implement a performance improvement program. Perhaps. But think of T2 and Synthon. They probably thought that way also. Now they are gone – except for...
Read Full Article