Rules and Regulations

Paul Sheppard, OCCA president and HMG paints regulatory and compliance manager returned to the University of Salford last week, to give the final presentation within the science and industry module. The presentation focused on the commercial and regulatory aspects of the paints industry.

Throughout the talk, Paul gave insight into the technical side of producing products in line with consumer requests, and the many processes that are required to achieve this. The process from the initial brainstorming to the production of a suitable product requires four important stages which are, development, testing, data production and evaluation. Thorough testing is required due to the many complex and intricate regulations surrounding product safety.

This presentation outlined some of the many obstacles manufacturers in the chemical industry face when producing, selling, and even buying products. Paul highlighted that since Brexit, all these tasks have become more difficult to navigate. This is because we are no longer part of the EU, and this impacts our ability to make processes greener, due to getting supplies on a large scale, along with chemicals being regulatory compliant.

Personally, I found this talk helped me become more aware of the regulatory side of the chemical industry. As it was an area of the industry, I previously did not have much knowledge of, and had not realised the difficulties surrounding importing and exporting chemicals. I think gaining an insight into regulatory compliance will help me when I begin my career in the chemical industry.