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Chemical Industry Supply Chain and Regulatory Compliance

Turkchem 25 Jul 2016 44 6 dk okuma

TURKCHEM

The chemical industry is among the highest-risk sectors due to many of its characteristics. It carries significant hazards, both because of the nature of the raw materials, semi-finished goods and products used, and because of the structure of work processes and the equipment used in these processes.

The chemical industry ranks among the highest-risk sectors due to numerous characteristics. It harbors significant hazards both from the nature of raw materials, intermediate products and finished products used, as well as from the structure of work processes and equipment employed in these processes.

For this reason, companies operating in the chemical sector are subject to a comprehensive set of regulations beyond the statutory requirements applicable to any other sector, including occupational health and safety, waste management and hazardous substance legislation. However, it must be said that it is hardly possible to assert that all these regulations, which aim to protect people and other living organisms, the environment and property from hazards, and to minimize potential damages should a risk occur, are being effectively applied in practice today. One of the striking indicators on this matter is that according to data from TÜİK (Turkish Statistical Institute), an average of 3 workplace accidents occur daily in the chemical sector in our country, resulting in temporary or permanent work incapacity or loss of life. There is certainly not a single cause behind reaching this state. Similarly, it is not possible to hold any single stakeholder responsible for the issue. From lack of training to the difficulty of applying all regulations together, from insufficient monitoring and inspection to non-awareness of legislation, from cost pressures to difficult working conditions, a combination of many factors produces these negative outcomes. At this point, it is necessary to elaborate on the matter of statutory regulations.

Turkey has signed numerous international agreements with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the European Union on the subject of occupational health and safety.

Moreover, following Law No. 1475 dated 1971 regulating worker and employer relations, the Labor Law No. 4857 was enacted in 2003, which addressed occupational health and safety issues more comprehensively, and finally the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Law No. 6331, which came into force in 2012, was enacted. Subsequently, the omnibus law that came into force in 2014 also contains provisions related to occupational health and safety. Therefore, we can say that our statutory regulations on occupational health and safety are at the 'most advanced level'. Similarly, with regard to hazardous chemical substances, many of which are classified as dangerous substances and whose entire processes from production to storage must be carried out under special conditions, Turkey became a signatory to the European Union's ADR (European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road) in 2010. ADR legislation contains provisions regulating many logistics activities and processes relating to dangerous substances, such as filling, unloading, handling, packaging, storage and of course transport. In this case, it is possible to state that these matters are also secured by statutory regulations. The Waste Management Regulation, which has significant importance for the chemical sector, was published in the Official Gazette and came into force in 2015.

The scope of this regulation, which addresses quite a broad area, is defined as follows in the regulation itself: "Ensuring the management of waste from its generation to disposal without harm to the environment and human health, reducing waste generation, reusing, recycling and recovering waste in ways that reduce natural resource use and ensure waste management, and establishing general procedures and principles relating to market surveillance and inspection of products falling within the scope of this regulation that have specific criteria, basic conditions and characteristics in terms of environment and human health." Thus, the statutory regulations on waste constitute an important dimension.

When we evaluate together the 3 fundamental topics mentioned above—occupational health and safety, transport and other logistics processes, and waste management—we can see that these matters cover nearly the entire supply chain of chemical substances. Fundamentally, every step of the supply chain, consisting of supply processes, production processes, shipment and recycling processes, and stakeholders involved in these processes, is covered by one of these 3 areas. Supply processes are covered by transport and other logistics processes (ADR), production processes by occupational health and safety, shipment processes again by transport and other logistics processes (ADR), and finally recycling processes can be evaluated within both transport and other logistics processes (ADR) and waste management. In other words, the entire supply chain of chemical substances is essentially safeguarded by statutory regulations. However, unfortunately, as nearly everyone involved in the matter would agree, the actual situation is not like that. Accidents that have occurred and the results of inspections conducted validate this assessment. One of the important reasons for this is the problems related to implementation procedures of statutory regulations. Unfortunately, the statutory regulations mentioned above waited for extended periods for their implementation procedures, and their actual implementation had to await the relevant regulations and guidelines, and additionally, most have undergone supplementary amendments. For example, although the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Law came into force in 2003, additional regulations were made through an omnibus law in 2014; the ADR agreement on the road transport of dangerous substances was signed in 2010, but the Regulation on the Road Transport of Dangerous Substances determining its implementation procedures was only published in 2013.

Furthermore, the circular addressing roadside inspections of dangerous substances was published at the end of 2013, and work on regulations and circulars concerning the principles of facility inspections is still ongoing.

A critical issue that needs to be addressed is the compatibility of implementation procedures and regulations concerning chemical substance supply chain processes with one another. Significant difficulties are being experienced in this regard, and designing and managing processes compliant with all regulations has become very difficult, sometimes even impossible for companies. For example, condition assessments of vehicles used for the transport of chemical substances could not be conducted because an authorized institution was not determined for a long time in this regard. Another example is the requirement in the Waste Management Regulation that the Hazardous Substance Safety Consultant must simultaneously be an Environmental Engineer. The insufficient number of Environmental Engineers holding Hazardous Substance Safety Consultant certification makes achieving compliance in this area very difficult. A matter closely related to the determination of implementation procedures for statutory regulations and their alignment with one another is the inspection of these implementations and the coordination of these inspections across different areas.

The fundamental issues here concern the employment and training of sufficiently educated personnel capable of conducting inspections on occupational health and safety, the transport of dangerous substances, or waste management, which are areas containing relatively new implementation procedures.

While there are approximately 2,000 inspectors in the field of occupational health and safety, team building efforts continue for hazardous substance inspections. Another matter requiring attention regarding chemical substance supply chain processes and statutory regulations emerges particularly during inspections. Adapting statutory regulations and regulations to the realities of business processes, and ensuring their practical applicability, is perhaps one of the important factors. For this reason, revising implementation procedures, and sometimes even statutory regulations themselves, based on feedback from the sector becomes a necessity. These feedback pieces of information arise mostly during inspections where official institutions—namely inspectors representing statutory regulations—and sector representatives—namely employees and officials of inspected companies—meet. Of course, deficiencies in statutory regulations or shortcomings in their implementation cannot solely be cited as the justification for the problems mentioned above. Particularly in newly implemented procedures, we frequently encounter company officials who, despite being aware of the risks and deficiencies in their processes, do not take action on these matters until an inspection results in penalties for their own company or a familiar company. Similarly (unfortunately, due to the effects of past practices in these directions), there are too many companies that remain indifferent, thinking that penalties and inspections will be subject to exceptions, the effective date will be postponed, or amnesties will be issued regarding non-compliances. The chemical industry's representatives must demonstrate greater awareness in these matters, seeking to achieve compliance by viewing these obligations not as an escape route but as improvement opportunities, and basing their approach on this principle. Assoc. Prof. Muhittin Hakan Demir / Logistics Management / Faculty of Business / Izmir University of Economics