Chemical manufacturers take the safe transportation of their products seriously, relying on safety initiatives that minimize distribution risks and establish procedures to respond should an incident occur. Like many chemical industry safety initiatives, transportation safety programs have largely grown out of Responsible Care®, a voluntary initiative that has resulted in America's chemical manufacturers having reduced emissions to the environment by 70% and having achieved a safety record that is four times better than the U.S. manufacturing sector as a whole.
At Dow Chemical, transportation safety begins with a distribution risk-review process. Through that process, Dow looks at chemicals that need to be shipped, the hazards of the chemicals, the origin and destination of the shipments, proper modes and packaging, and who the carrier should be. These distribution risk reviews are performed for all Dow businesses worldwide.