Material Process Control FAQ

Some of the many reasons for managing hazardous materials follow:

• To improve hazardous materials management by ensuring that the appropriate chemicals are being used for each operation and proper disposal procedures are implemented.
• To minimize costs and, thus, maximize profits by controlling the purchase of unnecessary chemicals, limiting the disbursement of chemicals to only approved work areas, eliminating redundant materials from the facility, and waste minimization.
• To provide a safer working environment by training employees in the proper safety precautions for use of hazardous materials as it applies specifically to their use within the facility or corporation.

The best reason depends upon your prospective. Sometimes, its just the right thing to do.

No. The regulating agencies have no authority to force companies to "manage" either their hazardous materials or wastes. The agencies can merely enact regulations governing specific actions. For example, an agency can regulate how to dispose of a material, but cannot impose controls on a company that would stop the usage of such material.

And Yes. The EU REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulation places a burden on the manufacturer to prove that certain chemicals were never included in a product or came in contact with a product.

The Committee Review Module is an excellent tool to document the management steps that were taken to insure that products where safe from even incidental exposure to certain hazardous chemicals.

Automotive and heavy equipment manufacturers have had paper review processes in place for decades. Recently, more and more companies have recognized the need to become more proactive with regulatory compliance and are implementing review processes. In addition, they recognize the need to have their hazardous material professionals directly involved in the day-to-day decisions on the use and disposal of hazardous materials.

No. hazMIN® is very flexible. You may require Requests only for your most hazardous materials. However, if you have Requests for everything, hazMIN® Environmental Reports can be run against the Request numbers. If you have identified the maximum and average storage and usage at each location, the Requests may provide adequate accuracy for environmental reporting.