Next Meeting of UN Subcommittee of Experts on GHS
From Mary Frances Lowe, EPA, Office of Pesticide Programs –
Because of your past interest in the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), I am writing to inform you of upcoming meetings of the UN Sub-Committee of Experts on the GHS and associated working groups (December 7-9, 2011), and the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR)/International Labour Organization (ILO) GHS Capacity Building Programme Advisory Group (December 7, am).
The website for the UN Sub-Committee has again changed a bit. To find the provisional agenda, working documents, and informal documents, (as well as reports and documents from past sessions) go to http://www.unece.org/trans/main/dgdb/dgsubc4/c4age_agendas.html . This will take you to the agenda. You will find working documents and informal documents by clickng on the list on the left of the screen.
In addition, the Fourth Revised Edition of the GHS (2011) is now available online at http://www.unece.org/trans/danger/publi/ghs/ghs_rev04/04files_e.html
The deadline for filing working documents for this Sub-Committee session has passed. Three working papers have been posted on the UNSCEGHS website. In addition, 11 informal documents have been filed to date, although more are expected. Informal papers may be filed at any time.
It is the policy of the Sub-Committee not to take any substantive action to amend the GHS based on informal documents; however, informal documents are discussed and may lead to the submission of formal working papers for consideration at subsequent sessions.
No documents have yet been posted for the UNITAR/ILO PAG session. Documents and a report of the last meeting (June 2011) are available at: http://www.unitar.org/cwm/ghs/pag/pag-17
Maureen Ruskin of the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be heading the U.S. delegation to these international meetings. The U.S. interagency GHS coordinating group is developing draft positions for the GHS Sub-Committee meeting.. If you have any questions, or have thoughts you would like to share with the group, please let us know so that we can take them into account in our preparations.