Towards a Holistic Legal Framework for Chemical Management Based on Life-cycle Thinking: Picking Best Practices to Provide Guidance for the Asian Countries

Abstract

In the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), it is stated that we should achieve the management of chemicals and wastes throughout their life cycle. A legal system for chemicals management, which might have the most significant role in this management, is quite complicated, because it consists of more than 10 statutes overseen by several agencies in most countries. The present legal systems are, therefore, not well structured or systemic enough as an entire system. In this study, we re-examined the statutes or legal systems in 5 developed countries except Asia from systemic perspective and comparative-law perspective, and picked the best practices for the management through the chemicals life cycle, to provide guidance for the Asian countries.