Chemsafe - An Industry-Led Mutual Aid Scheme

Chemsafe is a voluntary scheme run by the Chemical Industries Association and is an integral part of the chemical industry`s Responsible Care initiative. It is also consistent with the objectives of Cefic`s International Chemical Environment (ICE) programme.

Chemsafe has been developed to provide a rapid and co-ordinated response to minimise adverse affects to the public, property and the environment following a chemical distribution incident.

Chemsafe sets down performance standards for responding to emergencies, based upon the following response levels:

• Level 1 - Provision of information
• Level 2 - Provision of advice at the incident scene
• Level 3 - Provision of practical assistance at the incident scene

As part of Level 1, participating companies are required to provide NCEC with the details of all the chemicals they transport (all chemicals, not just those classified as hazardous). This means that if the emergency services cannot during an incident contact the company whose name appears on the label or placard for the chemical, they can call on NCEC, via its Chemsafe Longstop service, to provide the necessary information - 24 hours a day.

The chemical information is normally provided as safety data sheets. NCEC has over 400,000 safety data sheets and maintains a database of both current products and those that are no longer manufactured.

Benefits of Chemsafe to the Chemical Industry

Chemsafe helps to protect the image of your company and the industry as a whole by providing an appropriate response to the emergency services when they are dealing with an incident. Membership also provides the opportunity to seek help from other member companies. There is no charge for membership.