Together with Green Cross International and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the ICCSS co-sponsored a public forum on Monday 27th July on “Chemical Safety and Security: TSCA Legislation and Terrorist Attacks”, hosted by CSIS at its modern headquarters in Washington DC. The 3-hour forum was attended by more than 60 participants from government agencies, policy groups, industry and NGOs and was also webcast simultaneously on the CSIS website.
The forum program focussed on three issues:
- the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the first update in four decades of U.S. congressional legislation governing toxic chemicals, which is pending approval by the House and Senate;
- the U.S. Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards, a new regime established and implemented by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); and
- G7 Global Partnership efforts to improve chemical safety and security of industry and transportation.
ICCSS President Krzysztof Paturej presented in the third session on the work of the ICCSS and forthcoming Global Summit and Fair on Chemical Safety and Security to be held from 18-20 April 2016 in Kielce, Poland. He spoke on a panel with Amb. Bonnie Jenkins, the coordinator for Cooperative Threat Reduction activities in the Department of State, and Mr. Ali Gakweli, a Deputy Government Chemist from Kenya, who made a presentation on the ICCSS’s Kenyan Programme on Chemical Safety and Security.
Other speakers in the programme included Mr. Michael Walls, Vice President of the American Chemical Council; Dr. Michal Ilana Freedhoff from the office of U.S. Senator Edward Markey; and Mr. Todd Klessman, senior policy advisor in the Infrastructure Compliance Division of the Department of Homeland Security.