The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) have jointly conducted a four day thematic workshop entitled “Strengthening National Capacities for Chemical Analysis and Monitoring for the Sound Management of Chemicals” from 5-8 November at the OPCW Secretariat at The Hague, The Netherlands. The workshop is the fifth in a series of workshops held since 1998 on issues relating to the management of chemicals nationally, which address not only the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, but also the objectives set out in Article XI of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), with regard to the economic and technological development of States party to the Convention.
Altogether, 41 experts and representatives from 22 countries, including representatives of OPCW and UNITAR, participated in the workshop. The discussions focused on the situations and challenges involved in the strengthening of analytical capabilities in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Five critical areas were identified and deliberated upon in the workshop. These included: public and occupational health surveillance and medical needs for chemical emergency response; environmental quality monitoring and surveillance of environmental impact of chemical emergencies; monitoring of chemical quality assurance of food, drinking water, consumer goods and products of trade; monitoring of pharmaceuticals, drugs and doping; and emission and effluent control and monitoring of chemical wastes.
The recommendations made by the workshop covered legal, policy, administrative, financial, human resource and technical issues. Some of the major recommendations made were as follows.
– Donors should be encouraged to coordinate assistance for capacity building activities for analysis and monitoring for the sound management of chemicals. They should also ensure that equipment donations are suited to the needs of the recipient country and that appropriate training, service and maintenance are provided.
– Centres of excellence in the analytical area should provide assistance/advice on accreditation, identification of equipment, good quality reagents, availability of databases, sampling, standard operating procedures, internal quality control procedures and training courses.
-“Twinning” between laboratories at the international level should be encouraged to promote training, exchange of personnel and experiences, access to reference materials, etc
– A legal framework has to be put in place at the national level for the chemical analysis and the monitoring of sound management of chemicals
-Laboratories should negotiate with equipment suppliers the following: provision of training in use, maintenance and repair of equipment, as well as guarantees for regular supply of spare parts and continued maintenance over a ten-year period.
24/2001