OSPAR agrees controls on offshore use of chemicals

A mandatory regime for controlling the use of chemicals by the offshore oil and gas industry was agreed at the annual meeting of the Oslo and Paris Commissions (OSPAR) in June. The system will require companies to submit toxicity data for chemicals to national authorities, and involve a progressive move to less hazardous substances following risk assessment. Other measures agreed included a phase-out of elemental chlorine in pulp bleaching by 1998 and, in a move triggered by last year's Brent Spar affair, the establishment of a group to draw up proposals for the sea disposal of offshore installations by early 1997.