Guiding Principles of Responsible Chemistry

Serious gaps in chemical safety cultures and protocols have been exposed by catastrophic chemical accidents over the past 50 years, revealing the need for increased safety protocols and improved management systems. Examples include: 

While this is not a comprehensive list of all chemical safety incidents that have occurred in the past half-century, each of these events increased public awareness of the safety risks that accompany the large-scale production of chemicals and led to widespread legislative action to develop stricter safety protocols. Despite improved regulations in many parts of the world, such incidents continue to occur today, highlighting the ongoing need to prioritize chemical safety.   

Over the last few decades, a number of serious laboratory accidents have highlighted the need for rigorous safety protocols in academia as well as in industry. Examples include the following: 

The laboratory accidents described above highlight the need for a culture of safety in academic settings and for intentional safety training focused on risk assessment of the chemicals being used in an experiments. Accidents that cause serious harm to people and the environment can still occur within laboratories, even when using smaller amounts of chemicals than in industry. Chemical safety should be a priority in academia and other small-scale laboratory settings, as well as in industry.  

Chemical safety is only part of a chemist’s responsibility to ensure that chemistry is not used for harm. Chemists must also consider issues of chemical security, such as making sure that the toxic chemicals they can access are not misused by others.   

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), implemented by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW),¹¹ is an international nonproliferation treaty that was designed to rid the world of chemical weapons and prevent their future use. This agreement is currently the world’s most successful disarmament treaty, working to ensure that chemistry is solely being used for good.¹² Recognizing the importance of reaching future practitioners of chemistry, OPCW created a series of lessons to educate the public and university students on chemical weapons, with emphasis on safety, security, and the responsible uses of chemistry.¹³ These lessons focus on chemical weapons, other chemical security issues, and how to protect both humans and the environment from the misuse of chemistry. 

The Hague Ethical Guidelines were created by a group of international chemists, facilitated by OPCW, as an outline of the fundamental concepts related to the ethical practice of chemistry in the context of the CWC.¹⁴ These guidelines highlight safety, security, and sustainability as key components to the responsible use of chemistry and the protection of the health and well-being of people and the planet. The CWC and the Hague Ethical Guidelines are examples of important initiatives to integrate safety, security, and sustainability into the current chemistry culture. 

The Responsible Care initiative, founded in Canada in 1984, and now a global initiative, works to ensure that chemical manufacturing is safe, responsible, and sustainable.¹⁵ Its core principles focus on preventing harm to people and the environment, strengthening chemical safety and security, and promoting stewardship throughout the chemical lifecycle.¹⁵ Responsible Care is guided by a set of codes: operations, stewardship, and accountability, each outlining standards for ethical and responsible chemical management.¹⁵ Companies who subscribe to Responsible Care adopt these codes as they work to improve their production methods and chemical practices. By promoting transparency and accountability within the industrial field, the Responsible Care initiative seeks to ensure that safety, security, and sustainability of both people and the planet are maintained.