OECD Existing Chemicals Database
When a chemical or chemical category has been agreed by OECD member countries, several final documents are available to the public:
See the Manual for the Assessment of Chemicals for information on the process of gathering information, testing and assessing chemicals and chemical categories in the Cooperative Chemicals Assessment Programme, offers additional search capabillities and contains several useful lists and reports for easy viewing.
OECD Existing Chemicals Database
All published OECD assessments are accessible via the Existing Chemicals Database, which also tracks the status of chemicals and chemical categories in the Cooperative Chemicals Assessment Programme, offers additional search capabilities and contains several useful lists and reports for easy viewing.
Although the OECD Existing Chemicals Database provides the most direct link to the OECD-agreed published assessments, published OECD assessments may also be obtained through the eChemPortal - the Global Portal to Information on Chemical Substances. Because eChemPortal provides links to information from a variety of other government chemical review programmes, searching for OECD published assessments this way is especially useful if a user wishes to view a wider compendium of data from multiple sources.
Published OECD assessments are completed and available in coordination with other national or regional programmes, as outlined below. Complete assessments or associated background documents may be available as links to these other programmes through OECD's Existing Chemicals Database, or may also be available directly from the internet sites of the cooperating programme.
UNEP Chemicals
In the 1991 Council Act, it was decided that member countries shall make information obtained from the cooperative investigation of existing chemicals in OECD publicly available via UNEP Chemicals, while respecting legitimate claims for protection of confidential data. UNEP Chemicals has agreed that it will not only work as an archive for the data collected or generated in the OECD Programme, but also disseminate data through its databases. Therefore, SIARs and all information summarised in the SIDS Dossiers are transmitted to UNEP Chemicals once agreement on the initial assessment has been reached. Responding to the request made by UNCED in Agenda 21, Chapter 19 to expand and accelerate the international assessment of chemical risks, UNEP Chemicals issues a series of documents including the OECD initial assessments of HPV chemicals, both on CD-ROM and on the Internet (UNEP SIDS documents).
European Commission
For substances that have been assessed both in the context of the OECD Cooperative Chemicals Assessment Programme and the Existing Substances Regulation of the European Union (Regulation (EC) 793/93), the assessment is being published by the European Commission. They are therefore not included in the publications by UNEP Chemicals. Finalised reports by the European Commission can be downloaded from the ex-European Chemicals Bureau internet site. It should be noted that, while the hazard assessments have been endorsed by all OECD member countries, the risk characterisation part of these assessments is specific to the European Union.
Japan's Chemical Substances Control Law
Although Japan provides documents directly for posting within the OECD Existing Chemicals Database, targeted assessments have been provided based on regulations designed to target certain endpoints for testing under Japan's Chemical Substances Control Law.
Canada's Draft Screening Assessments in the Chemicals Management Programme
Some targeted assessments have been elaborated using draft screening assessments available under Canada's Chemicals Management Plan.
United States Hazard Characterisations under the Toxics Substances Control Act
Targeted assessments have also been elaborated using the hazard characterisations available from the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The summaries and evaluations contained in the chemical assessment reports in the OECD Existing Chemicals Database may be based on unpublished proprietary data submitted for the purpose of the OECD assessment.
In many cases, national/regional regulatory authorities will not accept a regulatory submission based on such unpublished data unless they have received the data on which the summaries and evaluation are based either from (1) the owner of the data or (2) a second party that has obtained permission from the data owner for this purpose. Alternately, the OECD assessment summaries and evaluation may be used if the applicant seeking use of the summaries has either (1) received permission from the data owner to use the summaries and evaluation in lieu of the original data; (2) compensated the data owner if mandatory compensation is required; or (3) uses/submits the information after the period of protection for the proprietary data has expired.
Applicants who wish to use data in these assessment reports should ensure that the use is consistent with the legal requirements in the country/region in which it is proposed to use the data.
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