International conference shares experience on chlorinated paraffins.

In April, China, the world’s largest chlorinated paraffin manufacturer, held an international conference in Beijing to discuss the challenges faced by the industry. Co-organised by CCAIA, CCAON and Euro Chlor, representatives from across the WCC were in attendance and the conference discussed the state of the industry in Asia, North America and Europe as well as the regulatory issues impacting these regions. The benefits and risk management issues were also addressed with the hope that, with close cooperation, clarification on some of the incorrect views in academia and at a regulatory level regarding CPs could be obtained.

CP’s provide effective solutions in many applications and products used to improve people’s lives worldwide. At the same time, these products continue to be under high regulatory pressure in various parts of the world, unfortunately often due to political, rather than scientific reasons. Being organochlorines, CP’s are too easily associated with some of the more problematic organochlorines of the distant past, such as PCBs and ‘drins’. In addition, dioxins have not helped the image of organochlorines, despite the fact that they are naturally produced and have never been intentionally manufactured. Meanwhile, the knowledge of the toxicology, environmental fate and analytics of these products has steadily increased for two decades. The Conference was an excellent occasion for international CP producers to network and exchange international regulatory updates.