The National Environment Agency on Wednesday 27, organised a one-day sensitisation workshop at Paradise Suites Hotel on Globally Harmonized System for the classification and labeling of hazardous chemicals.
The Gambia, it is noted, does not manufacture chemicals at all, but the mishandling of large quantities of chemicals imported into the country causes destruction to lives and livelihoods.
The workshop that attracts participants from different walks of life seeks to broaden their knowledge in identifying hazardous chemicals and communicating it to public.
Speaking at the opening, Mr Momodou Kanteh of NEA said although chemicals are important in the development of the country, nonetheless, it directly or indirectly affects the lives of all humans.
Thus, he said, safe handling and usage of chemicals as well as communicating it to the public to take precautions is important.
‘’The first step you need to do is to identify the hazards they pose to the health and the environment, and to communicate appropriate precautions or measures to be taken to use or handle these chemicals safely,” he said.
Iona Pratt, the UNITAR consultant spoke on the background, context and scope and application of Globally Harmonized System (GHS).
She said, GHS has the ultimate goal of ensuring that information on chemicals is made available to workers and consumers in a harmonized and comprehensible format around the world.
“Classification is the starting point for GHS, once a chemical has been identified, the hazard must be communicated to the targeted audience,” he said.
 She said, ‘’Globally Harmonized System is based primarily on the identification of intrinsic properties of chemicals [hazard] and subsequent communication of this information, while risk introduces the additional concept of exposure’’.
The GHS implementation process started in Gambia with the signing of an agreement between the National Environment Agency and UNITAR/ILO.
Under the terms of agreement, the NEA executed a capacity building pilot project which culminated into the development of the national GHS regulations.