COVID-19 Helpful Links: check here daily
Written on: March 25, 2020 by SprayTM
March 25, 2020:
More Than 100 Industry Groups Urge President, And Elected Officials At All Levels To Uniformly Apply Department of Homeland Security Critical Infrastructure Definition
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) today joined more than 100 other business and trade associations representing a wide swath of the business community in pressing the White House, Governors, Mayors, and other elected officials to come together with uniform practices and policies by adopting the definition of “critical infrastructure” as defined by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In addition to ACC, the letter was signed by groups including, the American Cleaning Institute; the American Petroleum Institute; the Biotechnology Innovation Organization; the Consumer Brands Association; and the National Association of Manufacturers, as well as many others. DHS has made clear that the chemical manufacturing sector and its workers are identified as Essential Critical Infrastructure. The DHS guidance also explicitly states that those supporting the chemical and industrial gas supply chain, including those working in distribution, transportation, packaging, and maintenance are included, in addition to anyone supplying the production of protective cleaning and medical solutions, and personal protective equipment.
The letter urges: 1) national coordination; 2) prevention of artificial barriers to the safe shipment of goods; and, 3) freedom for a healthy workforce to get to and from manufacturing facilities and retailers during all necessary hours of operation.
The role of chemistry is particularly important today. Chemicals enable countless products that will be needed to support life-saving medical care, including personal protective gear for front line health workers; chemical biocides and disinfectants that are the active ingredients in cleaning products that eliminate bacteria and viruses on a personal, household and industrial scale: and plastic products and packaging that help prevent contamination of food, medicine, personal care and medical products while helping prevent person-to-person transmission of disease-causing microorganisms.
As state and local governments make their decisions regarding COVID-19 we fully expect them to rely on this DHS guidance and not place any undue restrictions that would impede chemical production, including the ability of employees to travel to work and the transportation of material to and from chemical facilities.
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Members Helping Members: COVID-19 Webinar: Thursday, March 26, 2020
Clinical & Consumer Testing Impacts
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2020
Time: 3 PM – 4 PM ET
SUMMARY: In this webinar session, we will cover what is going on now in clinical, consumer, and product stability & compatibility testing facilities as a result of COVID-19 containment measures, tips for managing and how to prepare for recovery.
The second half of this webinar will be an Open Forum for questions and comments. Please feel free to ask questions, voice concerns, and offer tips or suggestions that you are seeing in your business related to product testing.
Discussion leaders for this session are:
Craig Weiss, President of Consumer Product Testing Company, ICMAD Board Member and Chair of Technical/Regulatory Committee
and
Jennifer Stansbury, Co-Founder of the Benchmarking Company, ICMAD Board Member
and
Howard Baker, Owner of Product Integrity Laboratory, LLC, ICMAD Board Member
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California Manufacturers & Technology Association (CMTA)
March 23, 2020
California Manufacturing COVID-19 Update
California Manufacturers & Technology Association (CMTA)
1. SECOND SURVEY — Please take a quick moment to respond to CMTA’s second survey to understand operational capacity of California manufacturing. It takes 15 seconds to respond. CMTA will add a repurposing question to the third survey later this week. The second survey will close at 10:00 am (PST) Tuesday. Company names will not be used. (From last survey – 94% were operating above 50% capacity)
2. DATABASE OF MFG REPURPOSING — Here is a link to view CMTA’s database of manufacturers who can repurpose for MFG COVID19 items. It includes discussions with California’s Office of Emergency Services and with the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. (The pdf also includes some select comments from manufacturers re their operations last Friday).
3. GOVERNOR NEWSOM — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is enlisting help from Silicon Valley, and all over California as manufacturers commit to retooling factories to produce medical equipment like ventilators and masks. Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook and Bloom Energy’s KR Sridhar were among the business leaders the governor thanked at a news conference this weekend.
4. FYI – CMTA staff is engaged in COVID19 member outreach by calling each CMTA Monday & Tuesday.
Also:
- Dept. of Homeland Security’s Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce guidance as a guide for your operations
- California’s COVID19 clearinghouse webpage
- CMTA’s COVID19 clearinghouse webpage
. RECORDING OF CMTA’S ‘COVID19 & MFG’ CALL March 20, 2020 — Listen to the 26-minute call HERE with CMTA’s Lance Hastings and CMTA Counsel Dale Stern.
- DON’T FORGET:
- CONVERSION MFG – If you have capacity to convert your operations to produce products for COVID19 or need it, contact us.
- INFO FOR CMTA MEMBERS USING OUR WORK COMP INSURANCE— See CompWest / AF writeup hereon COVID19 work comp claims, payment exceptions etc.
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