Still Working on Supply Chain Safety
- By Jerry Laws
- Jul 01, 2008
Quite a few federal agency leaders will be looking for work six months from now, but some are still contributing. Two, HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt and FDA Commissioner Dr.Andrew
von Eschenbach, visited
Chinese health officials in
Beijing and Shanghai two
months ago, arriving soon
after the disastrous earthquake,
to discuss product
safety cooperation. Both men are scheduled
to moderate panels at ANSI’s July 9 Import
Safety Summit in Washington, D.C.
The event is billed as an attempt to “fortify
the nation’s public / private
partnership on
import safety” and
spur more collaboration
throughout the
supply chain to ensure
the safety of imported
medical, food, and
consumer products.
Eleven associations of
manufacturers and distributors are
participating, including the Biotechnology
Industry Organization, Consumer Healthcare
Products Association, Food Marketing
Institute, Grocery Manufacturers Association,
National Restaurant Association, Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of
America, Retail Industry Leaders Association,
and Toy Industry Association, Inc.
Leavitt, who chairs the President’s Interagency
Working Group on
Import Safety, is the scheduled
keynote speaker, while
ANSI President/CEO S. Joe
Bhatia will moderate a standards
and certification panel.
Subsequent panels for
each of the three product categories
will examine actions
already taken to maintain a
secure supply chain and potential
next steps. The summit is open to all
interested participants and will be held at
the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Registration is required by July 8; visit
www.ansi.org for information.
Imported safety products are vital to our
industry, as are the consensus and mandatory
standards governing them. Safety manufacturers
and distributors know all about
the importance of standards; if you don’t
believe they mean much to your success and
survival, I suggest you read ISEA’s concise
“Safety Equipment Standards: Your Keys to
Business Success” pamphlet at www.safety
equipment.org.
This article originally appeared in the July 2008 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
About the Author
Jerry Laws is Editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine, which is owned by 1105 Media Inc.