In 20 years, the global output of chemical manufacturers will be 85% higher than it was in 1995, according to the report prepared by the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), a Paris-based group of the world's 30 richest industrialized countries. Within two decades, most chemical manufacturing facilities in OECD nations will produce specialty and life science chemicals, with developing countries leading in the production of high-volume basic chemicals, the report says. Meanwhile, consolidation within the global chemical sector will continue, resulting in fewer and larger multinational producers.

Policymakers will need to examine and respond to chemical health and safety issues that could result from this increased globalization, the report says. It calls for building up a knowledge base about the design of safer chemicals and finding better ways to evaluate and manage risks related to the release of chemicals in products. The report also recommends more effective use of economic analyses in risk management.

Safety testing, exposure assessment, and management of chemicals already on the market need to expand beyond current efforts to study high-production-volume substances, according to the report. "The lack of knowledge about most chemical substances on the market and the products in which they are used ... is a major challenge to policymakers today," the report says.

The report suggests that governments should develop a new safety evaluation approach to examine clusters of compounds related by structure, use, or other characteristics. This would replace or supplement current chemical regulation systems that deal with chemicals individually.

Meanwhile, the concept of chemical safety must be expanded to achieve a better balance between the efficacy of products and their environmental and health performance, which includes the use of resources, safety during manufacture, and chemical releases during use, according to the report. Governments need to help the chemical industry move beyond its Responsible Care program on health, environment, and safety improvement to an "extended producer responsibility" regime. Such efforts would ensure that chemical manufacturers take at least some responsibility for disposal of products after sale and use by consumers, the report says, with the goal of influencing manufacturers to select materials that produce less waste.

Meanwhile, OECD governments need to make information on chemical releases--such as the Toxics Release Inventory in the U.S.--and on chemical safety widely available, the report says. They should also support the development of chemical control programs in developing countries. The report is available on the Internet (http://www.oecd.org/ehs).

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