FOREWORD


We dedicate a separate issue of our Journal to presenting one of the most important – from practical and academic aspects alike – sections of the history of chemical safety in Hungary.
    Although the researchers and specialists of the field are yet to explore and evaluate the historical roots of our chemical safety system, it is undeniable that Hungary early joined the endeavour to implement and develop chemical safety. Hungary recognised the significance of the Memorandum of the Club of Rome, the Stockholm World Conference on “environmental protection”, the Brundtland Report, and the London Conference held to prepare for “Rio”. She joined the work of IPCS, IRPTC, IARC, and, perhaps, the earliest of JMPR. She was among the first countries, maybe, even the very first one in Central and Eastern Europe that actively adhered the policy on hazardous chemicals of the EU. Regulations were passed in the mid-1980s which aimed at eliminating the so-called “non-qualified” substances from the market, i.e., those that had not undergone proper toxicological screening. Moreover, these regulations aimed to enforce, at least partially, the screening of hazardous preparations or a group of them, too.
    Following the social, economic, and political changes of the years 1989–1990, Hungary stood in to a greater extent with the hazardous material policies of the intergovernmental organisations and the European Community. Hungary, already being a member of OECD, managed to fulfill the task of legal harmonisation assigned to her for the first period by 1998, by the time of the multi- and bilateral talks between the European Union and Hungary. Inspired by IFCS and paying attention to the guidance of UNITAR, Hungary developed her first National Profile of Chemical Safety by the end of 1997. The Profile – in accordance with its goals – provided an overview of the current state of chemical safety in the country and its regulatory and institutional systems, revealing the so-called strengths and weaknesses of the chemical safety system. Moreover, beyond the specifications of the UNITAR guidelines it drafted the framework of a national action plan, the implementation of which successfully solved the most important national chemical safety tasks. Since that time, one of the first acts of chemical safety in the World has been passed, the National Institute for Chemical Safety founded, beyond a technically “trained” chemical safety surveillance – with a support of the PHARE Program – a rapid alert and response information and laboratory system, too, has been established, chemical safety education introduced into the national curriculum, and the requirements for the legal harmonisation with EU met. The present new National Profile in the field of chemical safety reports on this “second” period.
    It is our hope that Hungary with her achievements will contribute to the further development of chemical safety of Central and Eastern Europe.

Prof. György Ungváry


CEJOEM 2006, Vol.12. No.2.: 71


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