In this July 2009 webinar, Mike Penman, a recognised REACH and chemical industry expert from Penman Consulting, discussed the current state of affairs regarding the REACH regulation, as well as challenges in SIEF participation and management and solutions. Baxter Jones, from ICF International, a senior risk assessment professional currently supporting four REACH consortia, presented scientific and technical challenges and solutions. Professor Lucas Bergkamp, a chemical industry legal expert and lawyer with Hunton & Williams, provided insights into the legal challenges surrounding REACH and SIEF facilitation and participation.
Mike Penman, Founder of Penman Consulting, has more than 30 years experience in managing toxicology, regulatory affairs and information technology within major companies, such as ICI Group and ExxonMobil, and associated trade associations. His experience includes long-term cancer testing, regulatory information services, senior-level toxicology ad product regulatory advisement, and technical REACH / GHS implementation management. Mr. Penman was also a chair of the CONCAWE Task Force for the implementation of REACH. He has also been involved in the development of regulatory databases such as IUCLID and in the development of novel techniques for the risk assessment of chemicals. In May 2007, Mr. Penman left ExxonMobil to found Penman Consulting, which is based in Belgium and offers services in strategic toxicology and regulatory solutions and management. He is currently managing two major REACH consortia and has provided REACH-related advisory and technical services to many organizations. He is also a Director of Baytouch Ltd, which provides regulatory compliance tools, including REACHsuite, the premier solution for substance management. Mr. Penman holds a UK Civil Honour for "Services to Environmental Safety."
Baxter Jones, a Senior Vice President at ICF, has 30 years of experience performing and managing an extremely wide range of activities in the areas of human and environmental risk assessment, exposure assessment, and toxicology. He currently is overseeing ICF’s scientific, technical, and program management activities to support REACH registration of over 300 substances under four consortia. Mr. Jones has a long history of reviewing, developing, and applying risk-based screening methodologies and risk ranking tools. Mr. Jones began a professional consulting relationship with the American Chemistry Council (ACC) in 1993 that continues to the present time, in which he has successfully delivered many projects in areas that include risk assessment, risk management guidelines, exposure scenario assessment tools, hazard ranking tools, persistent/bioaccumulating substances, POPs, high production volume substances, legislative cost analysis, and research program communications and management support. Mr. Jones directed a study of the 2003 REACH proposal for ACC in which ICF estimated the costs associated with both the chemical safety assessment and the socioeconomic analysis requirements, and also compared the proposed REACH study protocols to existing OECD protocols.
Professor Lucas Bergkamp is a partner in the Brussels office of the international law firm of Hunton & Williams. Prof. Bergkamp, who is both a medical doctor and a lawyer, heads Hunton & Williams’ European regulatory practice. Prof. Bergkamp advises chemical companies and manufacturers of other products on REACH compliance. Hunton & Williams has had an active chemical law practice for 20 years. Prof. Bergkamp is intimately familiar with issues arising under the EU’s current and previous chemical legislation, such as the Dangerous Substances Directive, the Dangerous Preparations Directive, and the Marketing and Use Directive. In assisting clients with REACH, Prof. Bergkamp brings to bear his extensive experience with the practice and interpretation of the EU’s current chemical regulatory regimes, as well as his understanding of other aspects of EU environmental law, EU administrative law, EU administrative and judicial remedies, and EU liability law. Prof. Bergkamp frequently speaks and writes on EU regulatory issues relevant to the chemical industry, including the REACH Regulation. In 1997, he was appointed Professor of International Environmental Law at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
