News & Events

Endocrine Disrupters Testing and Assessment (EDTA) Task Force

26-Jan-2006

The Endocrine Disrupters Testing and Assessment (EDTA) Task Force will speed up its validation and reporting activities for test methods in environmental species during 2006-2007.

This includes test methods already on the workplan of the Test Guidelines Programme in the area of fish testing for potential endocrine disrupters, testing on amphibians for the detection of thyroid disruption, and testing on invertebrates for assessment of ED on development and reproduction.

Read more....

Older workers: Living longer, working longer -- Second issue of the Directorate's Newsletter

17-Jan-2006

The second issue of the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Newsletter is now available. It focuses on the challenge of encouraging people to work longer as life expectancy increases, the topic of a recent high-level policy forum in Brussels.

OECD Reviews of Health Systems - Finland

07-Dec-2005

This book evaluates the performance of the Finnish health system in terms of quality of care, efficiency, fiscal sustainability and equity. After reviewing the challenges the system faces in future, the report makes a number of recommendations for structural improvements to be made to the system.

New CD-Rom with Initial Assessment Reports for High Production Volume Chemicals

14-Nov-2005

UNEP Chemicals has released a new CD-ROM containing all Initial Assessment Reports for High Production Volume Chemicals from the OECD HPV Chemicals Programme which have been finalised up to October 2005. The CD-ROM can be obtained free of charge by contacting chemicals@unep.ch. The assessments are also available from the following web site: http://www.chem.unep.ch/irptc/sids/OECDSIDS/sidspub.html

OECD opens in Seoul, Korea, its Regional Centre on Health & Social Policy

23-Sep-2005

The purpose of the Centre, which opened on 9 September in Seoul, is to promote policy dialogue between OECD and non-member economies and to provide capacity-building assistance to the non-OECD Asian economies by information-sharing and policy analysis.

Long-term Care for Older People

03-Aug-2005

How do OECD countries respond to the growing demand for long-term care services? What do they need to do to improve access to care, improve quality of services and make care affordable? An OECD report studies lessons learnt from reforms over the past decade and compares trends in expenditure, financing and the number of care recipients.

OECD Reviews of Health Systems - Mexico

15-Jul-2005

This book describes the strengths and weaknesses of the Mexican health system in terms of access to health care, quality of care, efficiency of supply of services and the financial sustainability of the system. The report also evaluates reforms to the system with particular emphasis on the recently-introduced System of Social Protection in Health and assesses remaining policy challenges. Read the Secretary-General's speech, delivered at a press release in Mexico City on April 6, and an article published in El Economista (also available in Spanish ).

Consumer Direction and Choice in Long-Term Care for Older Persons

25-May-2005

Efforts to support older persons remaining in their home are key to meet the care needs of ageing populations. Flexibility and choice can help this process. This working paper reviews how countries are implementing choice, including payments for informal care, and clarifies how such arrangements can improve care outcomes, employment and fiscal sustainability.

SIDS Dossiers in database format (IUCLID) available

09-Feb-2005

For a number of SIDS Initial Assessments elaborated within the OECD HPV Chemicals Programme, the SIDS Dossier was elaborated with the IUCLID database software. The databse files (export files) can be downloaded and then imported into a local IUCLID installation.

OECD Principles for the Validation of (Quantitative) Structure-Activity Relationships for Regulatory Purposes

24-Nov-2004

In November 2004, the OECD member countries agreed on the principles for validating (Q)SAR models for their use in regulatory assessment of chemical safety.  (Q)SARs are methods for estimating the toxicity and other properties of a chemical from its molecular structure.  They have been used in regulatory assessment of chemical safety in some OECD countries for many years, but not in others.  The agreed principles and associated report from the OECD Expert Group on (Q)SARs will contribute to their enhanced use for more efficient assessment of chemical safety.