- A factory has several years without a reportable environmental incident.
- An outside contractor accidentally causes a chemical release.
- Regulators arrive to investigate and audit the company’s chemical inventory filings.
- They find that inaccurate inventory data has been submitted for the past five years.
- Furthermore, one of the chemicals exceeded regulatory thresholds and a Risk Management Plan (RMP) wasn’t filed by the company.
Although the scenario above is a composite, it illustrates how fast environmental violations can snowball into years of regulatory oversight. Penalties are assessed for each noncompliant location, accumulate daily, and may be retroactive to the earliest violation. The company above could be facing 1,825 days of penalties per violation per location even though the chemical release was a recent event.
Inaccurate chemical inventory filings aren’t typically the cause of regulatory investigations but are often used to establish a pattern of noncompliance and leveraged into larger settlement agreements. Negative publicity, the hit to ESG ratings, and the potential to lose preferred-vendor status can turn a manageable incident into a financial and public relations disaster.
Chemical Safety Compliance is Global
Moreover, chemical safety has gone global for importers and exporters due to the implementation of the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) further complicating regulatory compliance.
A globally compliant Environmental Management System (EMS) is a must-have in a rapidly evolving regulatory ecosystem. A comprehensive cloud-based chemical inventory solution:
Automates Regulatory Reporting
- Mobile barcode technology that tracks chemical inventory in real-time.
- Notifications for chemicals that exceed regulatory inventory thresholds triggering the need to file an RMP.
- consolidate multiple locations and vendors Audit trails for inventory reconciliations.
- e-file regulatory reports
Automates Chemical Regulatory Compliance
- EPA, OSHA, and annual Tier II filing capability for each state.
- Safety Data Sheets (SDS) – automatic updates for chemical classification and hazard class changes. SDSs are digitally assigned to inventory codes for improved hazard communication.
- GHS-compliant label printing – Automatic updates for changes to the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals. Bilingual capability for imports and exports.
Growing Regulatory Administrative Burden
It’s becoming increasingly difficult for companies to stay current with an ever-expanding global regulatory environment. Chemical inventory must be accounted for throughout the entire value chain from procurement to production to disposal. A fragmented inventory system is one miscalculation away from a regulatory nightmare including production shutdowns, remediation orders, the potential for seven-figure penalties, and years of regulatory audits and inspections.
Alternatively, a comprehensive mobile SaaS chemical inventory module can be implemented for as little as a few thousand dollars annually per location and reduce the risk of administrative error. Please visit our website for more information or a demonstration on our chemical inventory solution.
Chemical Safety’s Environmental Management Systems (EMS) has been the industry’s most mature and comprehensive software solution. With more than 30 years of experience, thousands of deployments, and tens of thousands of active users, Chemical Safety has a solid history of successful implementations and satisfied customers with many of the largest corporate and government entities in the US and beyond. If you want to learn more about Chemical Safety’s offerings, contact us at sales@chemicalsafety.com
