Dear Maia,

Thanks for coming back with this additional information, it was very helpful. The directives mentioned below in your email is focused on worker protection which, although they of course have an important link to EU’s chemical regulations such as Classification, Labelling and Packaging and REACH, remain a bit outside our remit. However, we are very curious to learn a bit more from you with regards to e.g. whether the Global Harmonised System have been transposed to national law as well as the Rotterdam Convention? We take note of the status of the Biocide Regulation which we understand if of high interest for you. Here we, think we are able to offer more concrete guidance and share our experience of its implementation in the EU. This may help you at national level to increase the efficiency in the work on its implementation as well as enable you to better draw upon from what has already been done in the EU in terms of authorisation of active substances used in biocidal products.  

 

We fully understand the difficulties with funding to travel here and would therefore be more than happy to make the journey to you instead. This would give us an opportunity to give you a better understanding of our work in ECHA , what information is made available and how to find it as well as allow for an exchange on how we can support you. At such meeting we would very much appreciate to get an in-depth insight into your work on chemicals and your current challenges.

 

Would sometime towards mid-May work for you?

 

Kind Regards

Jenny

 

Jenny Holmqvist
Senior Scientific Officer

Coordinator International Affairs and Nanomaterials

European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)
Annankatu 18, P.O. Box 400, FI-00121 Helsinki, Finland
Tel. +358 9 6861 88 43
Mobile. +358 50 570 7067

jenny.holmqvist@echa.europa.eu
http://echa.europa.eu/ 

   

The above represents the opinion of the author and is not an official position of the European Chemicals Agency. This email, including any files attached to it, is intended for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. If you have received this message in error, please notify the author as soon as possible and delete the message.

 

Dear Ms. Holmqvist

Thank you once again for expressing your readiness to support the Ministry in capacity building of labour inspectors in order to share experience and best practices in the field of chemical safety and procedures of occupational safety in chemical enterprises (safe work in chemical enterprises; safe work with chemical substances; analyzation of chemical methods for their control, etc.).

In addition, we would like to inform you that under the EU-Georgia Association Agreement we have an obligation to elaborate national chemical safety legislation based on the following EU directives:

·        Council Directive 98/24/EC of 7 April 1998 on the protection of the health and safety of workers from the risks related to chemical agents at work (fourteenth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC)

·        Commission Directive 91/322/EEC of 29 May 1991 on establishing indicative limit values by implementing Council Directive 80/1107/EEC on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to chemical, physical and biological agents at work

·        Commission Directive 2000/39/EC of 8 June 2000 establishing a first list of indicative occupational exposure limit values in implementation of Council Directive 98/24/EC on the protection of the health and safety of workers from the risks related to chemical agents at work (Text with EEA relevance)

We also need further support for the implementation of Biocides regulation at the national level through training's, elaboration of appropriate documents/standards/regulations. Your vast experience in mentioned issue will help us to bring into conformity and harmonize REGULATION (EU) No 528/2012 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 22 May 2012 concerning the making available on the market and use of biocidal products in Georgia.

Due to the limited budgetary resources, unfortunately, at this stage Ministry is not able to cover the visit expenses for the trainings. Therefore, we kindly ask you to advise the possible alternative ways of financing (grant programs, etc.).

Thank you in advance for your support and cooperation.

Kind regards,

Maia Nikoleishvili

 

 

Dear Mrs Nikoleishvili,

Thanks for your email and interest in ECHA. We are pleased to hear back from you.

 

We take note of your suggestion below in terms of training and support. To further discuss how a collaboration could look like, we would like to invite to ECHA last week of January starting with 28 January. Could you kindly indicate a date of preference and we will put together a draft agenda listing topic of interest based on your email below.

 

Would this be an acceptable way forward?

 

In the meantime, please note that we disseminate all our decision, guidance and relevant information on substance in commerce in the EU, on our website. You can access all this on the follow page; www.echa.europa.eu. Another point of clarification to be made is that ECHA is not responsible for pharmaceuticals in the EU. These are exempted from REACH and is governed by other EU legislations. The right executive agency for pharma is European Medical Agency (EMA). Kindly let us know if you need help in establishing contact with them.

 

Kind Regards

Jenny

 

 

Dear Ms. Holmqvist,

 

Once again, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude towards European Chemical Agency for initiated partnership.

Hereby, we would like to provide you with more detailed information regarding occupational health and safety at workplace in Georgia and future collaborative issues:

The Labour Conditions Inspecting Department is a structural unit of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, that implements state supervision on employee’s health and occupational safety at the workplace. It includes determining, planning and controlling measures about chemical substances, drugs, intermediate products or the process of waste separation.

Based on current information, there are different profile companies, that are using chemical substances in rural, mining industry, construction or for pharmaceutical purposes (ammonium nitrate, Sodium cyanide, different kind of paints, pharmacological preparations etc.). Ammonium nitrate and Sodium cyanide is produced in company named JSC “Azoti” in Rustavi, Sodium cyanide is used in Gold-bearing mountain mass extraction and the recycling process in “RMG GOLG”, Ammonium nitrate and several kinds of fertilizers are often used in agriculture sectors such as viticulture and gardening, wine and spirits production, (LTD “Tbilgvino”, JSC “Kindzmarauli” LTD “Khareba” LTD “Graneli”, LTD “KTV” etc.). There are some pharmaceutical enterprises such as LTD “Aversi-rational”, LTD “GPC” etc… that are producing and packing medicines.

Violation of safety rules in the process of using chemical substances will have a negative impact on health of employees’ and their generations. Therefore, experience sharing in this direction is of high importance in order to efficiently handle investigation process, which includes determining the level of occupational risk factors, ensuring safety of the employees and professional illness and poisoning.

In order to improve existing standards of health and safety at workplace, it would be highly appreciated if you could consider the possibility of sharing experience and best practices through carrying out trainings and study visit in both countries.

Thank you once again for cooperation and support.

Looking forward to your feedback.

 

Kind regards,

 

Maia Nikoleishvili MPA

 

Chief Specialist of International Relations Division

Analytics, HR Management and International Relations Department

Ministry of IDPs from occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia

144 Tsereteli ave., 0159 Tbilisi, Georgia

Tel.: +995 32 2510034 (0803)

Cell phone: +995 577272713

E-mail: mnikoleishvili@moh.gov.ge

 

 

From: HOLMQVIST Jenny [mailto:Jenny.HOLMQVIST@echa.europa.eu]
Sent: Monday, October 1, 2018 6:08 PM
To: Maia Nikoleishvili <mnikoleishvili@moh.gov.ge>
Cc: Beka Peradze <bperadze@moh.gov.ge>; Nana Gabriadze Gmail <gabriadzenana79@gmail.com>; MALM Jukka <Jukka.MALM@echa.europa.eu>
Subject: RE: Initiation of collaboration

 

Dear Ms Nikoleishvili,

We take note of your email and echo your kind words regarding future collaboration. We are looking forward to learn more about the challenges you face regarding chemical management in Georgia. With a better understanding at hand, it will help us identifying issues of common interest and also how we can potentially support you in your work on implementing national legislations governing chemicals.

 

Against this background we await to hear more from you colleagues as you state in your email.

 

Kind Regards

Jenny

 

Jenny Holmqvist
Senior Scientific Officer

Coordinator International Affairs and Nanomaterials

European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)
Annankatu 18, P.O. Box 400, FI-00121 Helsinki, Finland
Tel. +358 9 6861 88 43
Mobile. +358 50 570 7067

jenny.holmqvist@echa.europa.eu
http://echa.europa.eu/ 

   

The above represents the opinion of the author and is not an official position of the European Chemicals Agency. This email, including any files attached to it, is intended for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. If you have received this message in error, please notify the author as soon as possible and delete the message.

 

Dear Ms. Holmqvist,

 

I would like to kindly address you from the Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia informed us  that European Chemicals Agency expressed its readiness to collaborate with the Ministry. We are sincerely grateful for your organization’s commitment.

 

I would like to copy this correspondence to the Head of Labour Conditions Inspection Department  - Mr. Beka Peradze and Head of Environmental Health Division of LEPL National Center for Disease Control and Public Health Dr. Nana Gabriadze to provide further details for initiation of this collaboration.

 

Thank you once again for proposed collaboration.

 

Kind regards,

 

Maia

 

 

Maia Nikoleishvili MPA

 

Chief Specialist of International Relations Division

HR Management and International Relations Department

Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia

144 Tsereteli ave., 0159 Tbilisi, Georgia

Tel.: +995 32 2510034 (0803)

Cell phone: +995 577272713

E-mail: mnikoleishvili@moh.gov.ge