An Emission Scenario Documents (ESD) is a document that describes the sources, production processes, pathways and use patterns with the aim of quantifying the emissions (or releases) of a chemical into water, air, soil and/or solid waste. An ESD should ideally include all the following stages: (1) production, (2) formulation, (3) industrial use, (4) professional use, (5) private and consumer use, (6) service life of product/article, (7) recovery, and (8) waste disposal (incineration, landfill).ESDs are used in risk assessment of chemicals to establish the conditions on use and releases of the chemicals, that are the bases for estimating the concentration of chemicals in the environment.
ESDs are already widely used in national and regional contexts. The Technical Guidance Document for EU Risk Assessment includes a number of ESDs, so that the information in these documents be used instead of the default emission factors. Some European countries have their own ESDs. The USEPA has developed a number of generic scenarios to be used as default release scenarios in risk assessment. OECD Task Force on Environmental Exposure Assessment is developing ESDs at the OECD level, in order to make it possible to reflect conditions on production, use etc. that are different between countries, and to avoid duplicative efforts by Member countries and industry in gathering exposure information.
The first process for developing OECD ESDs is a submission of a project proposal from member countries. The proposal specifies the industry categories and/or use categories that the documents will cover. Once approved by the Task Force, the lead country drafts the document, and the draft will then be circulated to the member countries for their comments. Taking the comments into account, the drafts are amended and published by the OECD.
Other details about ESDs can be found in the Guidance Document on Emission Scenario Documents ENV/JM/MONO(2000)12. This guidance document is currently being revised. Also, the Taks Force on Enviromental Esposure Assessment's developing a matrix of emission estimation methods included in existing ESDs.
Published ESDs series:
Series No. 1, Guidance Document on Emission Scenario Documents ENV/JM/MONO(2000)12
Series No. 2, Wood preservatives, (joint project with OECD Biocides Programme), Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4
Series No. 18, Adhesive Formulation [NEW, 24 Dec 2008]
Series No. 19, Formulation of Radiation Curable Coatings, Inks and Adhesives [NEW, 24 Dec 2008]
Series No. 20, Complementing Guideline for Writing ESDs: The Life-Cycle Step "service-life"
[NEW, 24 Dec 2008]
Comments and additional information on published ESDs
Users are encouraged to provide updated information regarding the estimation of chemical emission from these industry/use categories to the Secretariat. The OECD Task Force on Environmental Exposure Assessment reviews the comments received and considers the revision of ESDs.
The following comments/ additional information have been received:
Industrial surfactants: draft circulated in March 2002 - Comments closed.
The drafts are for commentary purpose only, and not yet for the actual use in environmental exposure assessment.
Projects in preparation:
Industry surfactants
Printing industry
Coatings industry; paints, lacquers and varnishes
Paper recycling
Blending of fragrance oils into consumer and commercial products
Adhesive formulation
Transport and storage of chemicals
Electronics industry
Insecticides used in households and for professional uses (joint project with OECD Biocides Programme)
The following industry categories are used in OECD emission scenario documents.
1) Agricultural industry
2) Chemical industry (basic chemicals)
3) Chemical industry (chemicals used in synthesis)
4) Electrical/electronic industry
5) Personal/ Domestic
6) Public domain
7) Leather processing industry
8) Metal extraction, refining and processing industry
9) Mineral oil and fuel industry
10) Photographic industry
11) Polymers industry
12) Pulp Paper and board industry
13) Textile processing industry (e.g. Dyestuffs, flame retardants)
14) Paints, lacquers and varnishes industry
16) Engineering industry: civil and mechanical
0) Others
The following use categories are used in OECD emission scenario documents.
The purpose of this case study document is to identify the similarities and differences between the emission estimation methods used in Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) and ESDs. The applicability of PRTR methods to the risk assessments intended by ESDs is also evaluated. Pulp and paper manufacture and textile wet processing are the two industry sectors focused on in this document.
