WHO and Republic of Korea agree on international chemicals collaboration
WHO Director-General, Dr LEE Jong-wook, the Republic of Korea Minister of Health and Welfare,
Mr KIM Geun-tae and the Commissioner of the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA),
Dr KIM Chung-sook, met on the 18 May 2005 to discuss ways and means of collaborating in international chemicals safety activities.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding it was agreed to establish the KFDA as a National Focal Point for the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS). Together with the KFDA, the National Institute of Toxicological Research and the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency will be established as three Korean institutions participating in chemicals safety activities.
Areas of collaboration under the agreement will include:
- risk assessment including collaboration of risk management process, harmonization of methodology and support of normative functions used to establish guidance values, such as those recommended in foods, drugs, drinking-water and air-quality guidelines;
- poisons information, prevention and management, including epidemiology, follow-up of cases and the collection and use of aggregated sets of human toxicology data;
- chemical incidents and emergencies, including public health preparedness, response, prevention, surveillance and capacity building; and
- capacity-building support for the aforementioned activities.