NEED FOR RESPONSIBLE CARE: A GLOBAL INITIATIVE OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES

Responsible Care (RC) is a safety movement, initiated in the year 1984 for chemical Industries sustainability. Responsible care is a voluntary code of conduct developed, enforced and monitored by the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA), United States of America. Before its initiation, it was a voluntary code which could be discussed and analysed by non-profit groups, industry associations and individual planners. Responsible care, was initially started in Canada in the year 1985 to address public concerns about the manufacturer’s distribution and use of chemicals. It is all about Chemical Industries commitment to continuous improvement in the environment, health and safety performance of chemical produce, all around the globe. A huge number of chemical associations and more than 52 Nations follow this basic rules of responsible care.
Responsible Care goes beyond legislative and regulatory compliances by adopting Cooperative and voluntary initiatives with local, regional and national Government and stakeholders. RC is more about commitment that seeks to build confidence and trust in a chemical industry and is essential to improve standards and quality of life. It helps to reduce the harmful emissions in an chemical industry and also lessen the number of chemical accidents. It also helps in the reduction of accidents by transportation of hazardous chemicals, which in long term, benefit the consumers, community and stakeholders.
It was way back when Chemical Manufacturers Associations (CMA) the oldest trade and industry Association in the United States founded in the year 1872, took a decision by the formation of 15 sulfuric acid manufacturers, joining together to develop common policies on the safe transportation of their product after the Bhopal Gas tragedy and a series of major chemical accidents reinforced an old perception among the masses and the stakeholders that a chemical industry can not conduct its operation without harming human health and damaging the environment. As a result, citizens group, non governmental organisations, legislatives demanded stringent regulated interventions. It was during those crucial times, the future of chemical industry was not looking so great. It was way back in 1983 CMA developed a set of principles to be followed by a chemical industry and the ways by which the industry should conduct business and relate to stakeholders. In the year 1985, public accountability office activities was introduced and CMA proposed a voluntary program called Community Awareness and Emergency Response. Eventually community awareness and emergency response became one of the six codes of responsible care. Later CMA formed the public perception committee composed of top industry executives. In the days that followed, public perception committee recommended CMA to launch Responsible Care. Responsible care is CMAs program initiative for improving the industries image and performance in the areas of environment health and safety. This initiative was launched in Canada in the year 1985 and later it was introduced in United States in the year 1988.
The International Council of Chemical Associations through Responsible Care continue to undertake actions consistent with the environmental principles of the United Nations Global compact. Responsible Care is governed by a Charter and following are the elements of the Global charter.
1. Adept Global responsible care core principles
2. Implement fundamental features of national responsible care programs
3. Commit to advancing sustainable development
4. Continuously improve and report performance
5. Enhance the management of chemical products worldwide – product stewardship
6. Champion and facilitate the extension of responsible Care along the chemical Industries value chain
7. Actively support National and local responsible care governance process
8. Address stakeholder Expectations about chemical industry activities and products
9. Provide appropriate resources to effectively implement responsible care

Responsible care charter was initially launched in the year 2006 and the motive was the extension of the process of continuous improvement beyond chemical manufacturing to other activities especially those associated with the safe use and handling of products along the value chain. Responsible care is an attempt by the chemical industry to regain public trust by demonstrating that chemical firms are responsible citizens who can self regulate (Mullins, 1994). It is a wonderful initiative to do business as well as serve the society and environment.
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(Views Expressed Above Are Personal and based on Personal Research into the subject and References)
Writer :
Mainak Majumdar
Government Affairs, Disaster Management, Policy Specialist

References:
1. Rc_Globalcharter2006 [1]
2. cefic.org/responsiblecare/
3. wikipedia.org/wiki/responsible_care
4. Sage Journal, Responsible Care: An Assessment, June 1, 2000

TSUNAMI DUE TO EARTHQUAKES: NEED FOR DISASTER (CHEMICAL/NATURAL) MANAGEMENT

Tsunami’s due to Earthquakes are very dangerous. A few steps can save your life. The given list is of personal advise/suggestions. Please check with Local Disaster Management Authorities for any eventuality:

BEFORE:

1. Find out if your home is in a danger zone. Know the height of your street above sea level and distance of your street from the coast. The Evacuation orders refer to these points.

2. Please be familiar with the Tsunami warning signs as this can be caused by an underwater disturbance or an earthquake.

3. People living along the coast, should take this signs as a warning signal.

4. A noticeable rapid rise or fall in coastal waters is also a sign that a Tsunami is approaching.

5. Make sure that all your family members know how to respond to a tsunami.

Prepare evacuation plans much early; don’t take chances in case of emergencies. A few seconds of delay can take your life.

6. Please keep all the disaster supplies on hand, like first aid box, flash light and extra batteries Also keep all your important documents along with your insurance policies in a bag, so that while evacuating, you can take those with you.

7. Develop your own emergency communication plan. Incase family members are separated from one another during a tsunami (A very real possibility as you can be in work and your children might be at home), have a plan of getting back together.

8. Ask an out-of-state relative or friend to serve as the “Family Contact”

9. In case of emergency, please call the Disaster Management Authority of your respective Government or the Red Cross or your local disaster management office.

DURING:

1. Please listen to the Radio to get the latest emergency information. Keep portable radios in

case of emergencies.

2. If you hear an official tsunami warning or detect signs of a tsunami, evacuate at once.

3. Climb to a higher ground as early as possible.

4. Remember that a tsunami warning is issued, when the authorities are almost sure that a tsunami may happen. So, please don’t take chances.

5.  Stay away from the beach. Never go to the beach to see a tsunami coming.

6. Return home only when the authorities advise you to do so.

7. Do not assume that one wave means that the danger is over. The next wave may be larger than the first one. Stay out of the area.

AFTER:

1. Stay tuned to a battery-operated radio for the latest emergency information. Help the injured or trapped persons.

2. Do not move seriously injured persons unless they are in immediate danger of further injury. Please call for help.

3. Do remember to help your neighbors who may require special assistance- infants, elderly people and people with disabilities. Please stay away from damaged buildings.

4. Do return home, when authorities instruct you to do so. Enter your home with lot of concern.

5. Check for electric short circuits and live wires. Please do not use appliances or lights until an electrician has checked the electrical system and open windows and doors to help dry the building.

6. Check for also gas leaks if any- if you smell gas or hear a blowing or hissing noise, open a window and quickly leave the building.

7. Turn off the gas at the outside main valve if you can and call the gas company from a neighbor’s home. If you have turned off the gas, the gas should be turned on by a professional.

8. Check for sewage and waterlines damages.

9. Please also call the water company, if your water line is damaged.

After all these, I just want to say, that please don’t panick. Follow the rules and you will be fine. After all, there is so many agencies as well as your Respective Government to take care of you. So, have faith in God and you will be safe…

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Mainak Majumdar
Disaster Management Specialist and Writer

NEED FOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT, BASIC RESEARCH AND EARTHQUAKE MANAGEMENT

When one thinks of Disasters, it naturally crosses one’s mind if only it had been averted. Disasters are by their very nature unpredictable and happen inspite of the best efforts. It appears to be so sudden and powerful that one attributes it to ones fate. This is what make each of the disasters remarkable and larger than life. Even though all precautions are taken, yet they happen and the sheer ferocity of their occurrence brings terror to one’s heart. It is hard to believe that except for a chance event of the affected people being part of the disaster, they might very well be alive.

The scene of the disaster is heart-rending and what comes to mind is the horror of what happened and one is compelled to feel sorrow for the victims of the disasters.Whether it is the Hurricane Katrina, Wilma, Recent Earthquake in India, Tsunamis, Chernobyl Nuclear Tragedy, Bhopal Gas Tragedy (India), Hurricane Andrew 1992, cyclone at Darwin Australia (1974) etc; each of the disaster has a unique story to tell: if only it could have been avoided and here lies the importance of pre-disaster management policy.

Some times our stereotypical attitudes and lack of proper policy implementation often leads to failure to recognize THAT RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT are inextricably linked and part of the same on-going process. It is now being acknowledged that disasters an wipe out years of development and can dramatically increase vulnerability An increasing number of Governments and International Organizations are promoting risk reduction as the only sustainable solution for reducing the Social, Economical and Environmental impacts of disasters. Risk Reduction strategies includes vulnerability mapping identification of areas that are safe for settlement and development adoption of building codes based on disaster resilient engineering and on local hazard risk assessments and enforcing these plans and codes by economic and other incentives.

I want to stress on the points of local capacities and pre-disaster management to safeguard the precious lives of our brothers and sisters of my planet. One of the most important of these concerns is to build local capacities. The rationale here is based on recognition that local communities have developed their own, indigenous, preparedness and mitigation activities based on their extensive experiences of living with disasters. (All too often in the past, these have been overlooked or undervalued by Disaster Management Specialists from Outside)

Let me give some examples:

In India, one tribal group living in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands understood the coming of the arrival of the slayer Tsunami and fled to a safer place long before the killer waves would have engulfed them. An art of their own, passed from generations to generations. In Africa, there are a lot of food shortages due to drought; but they are able to prevent full blown famine by employing a variety of ‘coping’ mechanisms that allow them to ride out the hungry season until the next harvest. Also I believe that successful disaster prevention depends partly upon being able to predict these crisis before they happen. Though Disasters happen with great regularity, I believe that we should do research as how to stop these natural calamities rather than forecasting it’s arrival.

To that effect, we should stress the need for natural barriers for cyclones and hurricanes, rainwater harvesting methods for continuous supply of water even in the driest seasons, concepts on recharging of groundwater in the driest part of the world. Stressing the need to use methods for liberation of energy from the faults in the earth-strata, so that the release of the enormous energy from the bottom of the earth will stop earthquakes happening! Also we should stress on the afforestation initiatives in catchment areas basins.

I believe this basic research can enable us to understand the water-soil-climate system better. This can lead to new thinking and new avenues of action, which can yield larger stable production within the existing constraints.

The effort spent in basic research and the policies obtained from those pays for it many times over, though not necessarily immediately.

We would request you to send your views and suggestions by filling our ‘Contact Us’ form.

The views given above are personal.

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Mainak Majumdar

Disaster Management Specialist and Writer

REMEMBERING THE ‘TSUNAMI’: NEED FOR DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Nature rules us all. The bountiful nature that sustains the entire living world on our planet has a furious face as well. Traumatized by the towering waves of Tsunami – the most savage force of nature – that hit the South-East Asian Coastlines, humankind is reminded of it’s helplessness in the face of Nature’s fury, although timely warning of such unstoppable disasters can surely help in lessening the overall devastation.

Have you ever imagined gigantic sea waves, moving nearly at the speed of a jet plane, appearing without a warning and hitting the coastlines like a ‘water bomb’. Loaded with enormous energy, the killer waves wreck havoc by flooding several kilometers inland, as they flatten houses and wipe out villages, uproot electric poles, throw cars into swirling waters and toss boats ashore all in a mad furry and finally, drag thousands of hapless victims out to the Sea as they recede. Sounds of pathetic wails engulf the area as loved ones are separated from each other and some forever… Leaving a trail of total destruction, the ruinous waves simply spell disaster. Unfortunately, this is not a scene from a horror movie but is a real life happening.

This natural disaster, known as ‘tsunami’ (soo-NAH-mee) – a destructive, ocean-riding wave created by an undersea disturbance – struck the coastal areas of South-East Asia in the early hours of Sunday, 26th December, 2004. Caught unware by the waves of doom by the fury of sea waves were scores of human lives and suddenly as the hell broke loose, the beautiful beaches brimming with life a few hours ago, transformed into graveyards with dead bodies lying amid torn fishing nets, smashed boats and debris strewn all around.

Millions suffered the terrifying burnt of the assault while thousands of people died an unnatural death. The worst hit nation is Indonesia where a staggering one lakh are estimated to have perished in the wake of this mammoth devastation. Sri Lanka was also hit very brutally by tsunami; as the death toll has been about 31,000 in this island nation.

Tsunami is a Japanese word represented by two characters; tsu and nami. The character tsu means ‘harbour’ while the character nami means ‘wave’. Most tsunami is occured in the Pacific Ocean. Some deadliest Tsunamis are: November 1st, 1755 (Lisbon, Portugal and much of Europe) killed 60,000 people. August 27th, 1883: Eruptions from the Krakatoa volcano fueled a tsunami; killing 36,000 people. June15th, 1896: Sea waves as high as 30 meters, spawned by an earthquake , which swept the east coast of Japan killing 27,000 people. March 27th, 1964: known as ‘Alaskan Good Friday’ earthquake that measured 8.4 on Ricter Scale, generated a tsunami and killed many people in Cresent City, northern California. July17th, 1998 an earthquake of magnitude 7.1 generated a Tsunami in Papua New Guinea that killed 2,200 people.

Though Tsunami’s are often referred to as tidal waves but this is incorrect as tides can also happen due to gravitational influences of the Moon, Sun, and Planets. A point to note is that tsunami’s are not always due to ‘Seismic sea waves’, as they may also be generated due to landslides, volcanic eruptions and quite rarely by the import of a large meteorite falling in the Ocean.

The Asian toll took over 1,50,000 lives, the death toll in India rose to 9,451 by January 2nd, 2005 with 5,511 persons missing. The number of deaths stood at 812 in the Andaman and Nicober Islands, 574 in Pondicherry, 166 in Kerala and 106 in Andhra Pradesh. Around 5,421 were missing in the case of Andaman and Nicober Islands; out of this; 4,657 were missing from Katchal Islands alone. An estimated 10,000 people are said to have died in the Nicober group of islands. The islands were badly hit, both, beacuse of their proximity to the epicentre of the earthquake and the fact that the tectonic activity actually led to the subsidence of the islands. Great Nicober, the southern most island in the group is about 150 km from the epicentre at Banda Aceh in Sumatra in Indonesia. A good indicator is the fact that the light house at Indira Point, the southernmost tip of Great Nicober Island, now stands in the ocean waters, when earlier it was at least about 100 metres inland from the high tide line.

In the first few days of the tragedy, little was known of the destruction that had occured further South in the Central Nicober group comprising the inhabitated islands of Nancowry, Camorta, Katchal, Trinket, Chowra, Peressa and Bompoka and the Southern group where there were human population on Great Nicober, Little Nicober, Pilomilo and kondul. The worst hit region by the Tsunami was Indonesia, which lost more lives than any other country. Dozens of bloated bodies littered the streets of Banda Aceh city as soldiers and desperate relatives searched for survivors of the earthquake and tidal waves. Several hundred bodies collected by the emergency workers lay under plastic tents and rotting on December 27th, 2004. Dozens of bodies were laid in ruins in Banda Aceh, capital of Aceh province. In sumatra a million people were left homeless. Villagers in Sunadon district were picked through the debris of their ruined houses amid the smell of decomposing bodies. Atleast 4,491 persons were killed on Sumatra island and on Nais, an isolated island that lies west of Sumatra. So, apart from India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, countries affected are Thailand, Malaysia, Somalia and Maldives.

The titanic tsunami that wrought unprecented death and destruction in South and South-east Asia will go down in history as one of the greatest natural calamities of modern times.

The Titanic Tsunami that wrought unprecedented death and destruction in South and South-East Asia will go down in history as one of the greatest natural calamities of modern times. The great disaster caught the people and the Government off guard and in a matter of minutes, snuffed out more than 1,50,000 lives across more than twelve countries. The number of people rendered homeless might run into millions as no estimate is immediately available as to how many children have become orphans or how many women have become widows and how many families have been wiped out in a single sweep. The biggest ever International relief operation was on; as the fear of an epidemic loomed large.

The catastrophe spawned by tsunami once gain underscored the need for a well-planned disaster management; it did show that we are totally ill-prepared to cope up with such kind of crisis, natural or man-made.

Years passed but still that old question comes to my mind; Are we ready for another Tsunami?” If History repeats itself; shall again our brothers and sisters have to meet the same fate, which was faced by the people on 26th December, 2004?”

The enormity of the tragedy that overtook South Asia would have been eased the countries had a good international warning system and good awareness programs about the do’s and don’ts in the fall out of a deadly disaster (Pre-disaster management policies).

The Department of Space, India have already established more than 250 cyclone warning receivers that can be activated via satellite; all these is very useful for tsunami warning. more such receivers is the need of the time. The time has also come to stress on community education keeping along with the disaster management theme of this year that “disaster Management” should begin at School. This will enable the people to know exactly what they should do; when the warning is sounded.

Disasters like cyclones, droughts, floods, earthquakes, Tsunamis and now biological and along with man-made tragedies along with communal riots due to race, ethnicity or religion is leading to Social disasters, may become burning issues in the years to come. We have to join hands to stop it happening and celebrate with the true spirit of humanity to make a disaser free world for us as well as for our future generations.

So, what is required is a comprehensive blueprint as to how to cope with such crisis in both the short-term and long-term manner. There need to have good mass awareness programs stressing the importance of pre-disaster management policies; along with that there needs to be social, physical, emotional or physcological and economic rehabilitation in the wake of a massive disaster. Ever step need to be taken to help the victims forget for ever, the trauma they have taken gone through.
Its true that this is not an easy task.

The orphans need a home and parents who can adopt them. Most of the victims have to start life a fresh beginning with a new home and a new vocation. Its a gigantic task where the fortunate ones who have escaped the fury of nature must contribute their mite so that the calamity struck must feel that there are others who care for them.

Lastly I just want to stress on the point that It’s not the Government agencies alone, but every citizen must act to help others in distress.

Thanks a lot for taking your time and reading this article. Please ‘Sign in’ at the Guestbook and place your views. Lets join hands to make a better world for us; as well as for our future generations.

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Mainak Majumdar

Disaster Management Specialist and Writer