By Adedapo Adesanya
The United States has identified Nigeria as one of the most viable countries to promote chemical security for a safer world and called on the country to responsibly operate using the commodity.
This was the crux of points raised by Mr Daniel Rockniak, Senior Director, America Chemical Council (ACC) at a workshop in Abuja on Wednesday, noting that Nigeria is one of those countries it has identified as hopefully good locations for responsible care.
He said that his mission to Nigeria was to talk to stakeholders handling chemical distribution about how the country could handle responsible chemical distribution.
He said that it was imperative to potentially identify the responsible organisations to sponsor responsible care in Nigeria.
“We have seen benefits around the world of a country and industries taking up responsible care and having a program that identifies specific requirements.
He stated that the US was not about to replace the regulations on chemical distribution in the country but to complement them.
According to him, in a country where you already have chemical management programs, responsible care can help improve a company’s performance.
He said that if there were challenges with regulatory processes, responsible care could help fill some of those gaps by using best practices around the world to improve their chemical management.
On his part, Mr Patrick Omokpariola, Director of Chemical Evaluation and Research at the National Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) said that the concept of chemical safety has been around for many years.
“Everyone that has contact with chemicals and chemistry already knows that chemicals are inherently hazardous and dangerous, so we have to be kept in such a way to be safe.”
He said that the real concept of chemical security started after September 11, 2021, usually referred to as 9/11, during the attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
He said that NAFDAC had adopted the chemical security programmes of the US, adding that this is what the country modelled its operations on to ensure that citizens keep chemicals safe.
“Chemical security is to keep people safe from the harmful effects of chemicals, while chemical security, on the other hand, is to keep the chemicals safe.
He stated that this is so that people who have various activities, such as non-state actors, terrorists, and the rest of them, do not have access to chemicals.
This, he said, was to forestall criminal elements such as suicide bombers and terrorists, among others from using it to manufacture bombs.