March 2-6, 2020, ChemCon The American 2020 welcomed professionals from home and abroad at the Hilton Philadelphia Hotel, U.S. This was the fifth time REACH24H joined ChemCon not just as a partner, but now also as media promotor of ChemCon The Americas 2020, which was greatly leveraged via REACH24H’s customer base and full-fledged platform ChemLinked to add new strength to the promotion of the ChemCon conference.

This time, REACH24H USA Inc. General Manager, Robert Kiefer, Regulatory &Technology Director, Shannon Gainey, and REACH24H KOREA CO.LTD Technical Director, Bella Kim, were invited as speakers to present topics on GHS implementation in North America, Overview of K-REACH and K-BPR and its regulatory implementation, Avoiding Supply Chain Disruption, as well as Revisions of MEE order 7, update of the Inventory of Chemical Substances of China, Environmental Risk Assessment and Control of Chemical Substances.

On March 3, Dr. Gainey mentioned in her speech that the implementation of GHS in North America is mostly harmonized, although there are still a few challenges arising from differences in their implementation, mainly between Canada and the United States.  The United States-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) brings together regulators from both U.S. and Canadian departments with health, safety, and environmental protection mandates to reduce unnecessary differences between their regulatory frameworks.

On March 5th, Bella Kim presented an overview of K-REACH and K-BPR regulations and compliance updates, the only regulatory expert invited to participate in the “Chemical control legislation in the Asia Pacific region” session from Korea. In the afternoon, Robert Kiefer explained how to avoid supply chain disruption and presented specific case studies during the “Managing business impact in the global supply chain of key regulations with stakeholders” session.

The last speech to be delivered by REACH24H was from Mr. Kiefer. His topic focused on the Regulation on Environmental Risk Assessment & Control of Chemical Substances, discussing the management of both existing and new chemical substances. Three lists with different control levels are expected to be published according to the risk assessment of the existing chemicals. The regulation shifts management focus from registration to risk control. The revision of MEE Order No.7 simplifies registration rules, reduces the monitoring of the substances with low risk yet may have added requirements on PBT substances. High-risk substances are therefore to be the focus in this revision.