Why chemicals law stands still

Dar es Salaam. The limited number of inspectors in the chemical industry has been noted as a hindrance to prompt implementation of the law on control and management of industrial and domestic chemicals of 2003.

This was revealed yesterday by deputy government chief chemist David Elias during the opening of a two-day training attended by over 60 chemical inspectors in Dar es Salaam.

Mr Elias said the side effects of mishandling chemicals during production, transportation, storage and usage can be very harmful to human beings.

“In curbing chemicals’ side effects, the government enacted a law of controlling and managing industrial and domestic chemicals number 3 of 2003.”

According to that law, the Government Chemistry Laboratory Agency (GCLA) was authorised to conduct training on chemical management.

GCLA has managed to train 86 chemical inspectors in a period of three months.

However, this was below the target of 126 inspectors working in various chemical industry establishments.

“This has led to having limited number of skilled inspectors, which in turn hinders the progress in the implementation of the law,” he said.

The law provides for every chemical stakeholder (transporters, traders and users) as they are bound to be registered by the government chief chemist.

For his part, the department director of control and management of chemicals, Mr Christopher Anyango, urged chemical moderators to participate in training so as to develop their skills and enhance knowledge during implementation of their work.

He said, “there is a tendency of chemical inspectors sending their sub-ordinates to participate on their behalf, this affects our goal of reaching out to them.”

He added that, the main aim of the training is to raise awareness on the law of control and management of domestic and industrial chemicals among users, transporters and producers.