Our Expertise and Experience

The founder of Protection Through Knowledge Ltd, Andrew Fasey, has been intimately involved in perhaps the two most important regulatory developments in the management of chemicals of the last 20 years. He is one of the (very few) authors of the European Commission's REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) proposal as well as being a member of the drafting group that prepared the GHS (the Globally Harmonised System for the classification and labelling of chemicals). He has over 20 years of experience in regulatory chemicals issues.

PTK was set-up in 2004 and its client list covers small and large companies, trade associations (UK and non-EU), NGOs, EU Governments (UK and Finland), and academic institutions (UK and USA). Of particular note is the role Andrew Fasey played as the Special Advisor on REACH to the Government of Finland in their successful bid to finalise negotiations on REACH during their Presidency of the EU in 2006. PTK also works with expert collaborators to ensure that clients receive the very best service and expertise available.

Up until the end of 2004 Andrew worked for Directorate-General (DG) Enterprise (ENTR) of the European Commission in the REACH Unit. He was responsible for negotiations and development of the new EU chemicals strategy (known as REACH) from 'day one'. He is one of the (few) authors of the REACH proposal and was responsible for taking REACH through the co-decision process in the Council of Ministers and European Parliament and for international aspects of the proposal. He had responsibility for international affairs including WTO (World Trade Organisation), SAICM (Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management), and represented DG ENTR at OECD and was involved in a number of its programmes (e.g. QSAR expert group, new substances task force). He was also responsible for the implementation of the GHS in the European Union (EU) as well as its ongoing development through the UN and OECD.

Prior to joining DG ENTR, Andrew was Head of Unit in the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) with responsibility for developing policy on and negotiating EU and international chemical control legislation and programmes. He was a member of the IOMC (Inter–Organisation programme for the sound Management of Chemicals) group that drafted the GHS and was Head of the UK Delegation to the UN GHS Committees. Additional areas of responsibility were the new EU chemicals strategy (REACH), OECD programmes, TABD (Trans Atlantic Business Dialogue), IFCS (Inter-Governmental Forum on Chemical Safety) as acting head of the UK delegation to IFCS Forum III, and proposals for EU restrictions on the marketing and use of chemicals.

Before this, Andrew worked for the DG Environment (ENV) Chemicals Unit where he had policy responsibility for the notification of new substances and the operation of the Competent Authorities, worked on existing substances and classification and labelling (including GHS) as well as various international programmes.