GHS Committee Would Feel Effects of UN Budget Cuts
Proposed budget cuts at the United Nations would compromise the work of the committee that oversees the standardized international system for communicating chemical hazards, according to the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council. DGAC, an international educational organization that promotes the safe transportation of hazardous materials, posted an item to its website last week indicating that it has urged the United States’ UN representation to support funding for the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and on the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).
In a letter to Jason Conroy, an official with the U.S. Mission to the UN, DGAC explains that the proposed budget cuts would eliminate several positions from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), which supports the Committee of Experts. A UN document (PDF) with details on the proposal indicates that ECE would lose 28 staff next year. According to the DGAC letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Synergist, one of the positions proposed for elimination is the chief of the Dangerous Goods Section, which facilitates work on GHS as well as several international agreements governing transportation of hazardous materials.
The proposed cuts are additional to budget reductions already implemented this year, according to the letter.
“These cuts may result in a reduction of the number of meetings authorized [and] a reduction in the resources allocated to translation and interpretation,” DGAC’s letter states. “We respectfully assert that the work of this Committee provides an invaluable safety and economic benefit to the United States and that these additional budget cuts threaten its efficiency and work product.”
The cuts are part of $500 million in proposed reductions that would affect funding across the UN.
GHS is updated every two years. The most recent version, revision 11, was released in September.
Related: Read “Q&A: Updates to the Hazard Communication Standard” in the December 2024 issue of The Synergist.