Australian Industrial Chemicals

The Australian Industrial Chemicals (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989, as amended, provides for a national scheme for the notification and assessment of industrial chemicals in order to protect people and the environment from the harmful effects of industrial chemicals. The scheme, known as the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS), began operating in July 1990 and is administered by the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission (Woiksafe Australia), who also perform the primary toxicological assessment and the occupational health and safety assessment. The Department of Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories undertake the environmental hazard assessment, and the Department of Community Services and Health carry out the public health assessment. A Handbook for Notifiers is available from Woiksafe Australia [35]. 

Australian Government (2008) Phthalates hazard compendium. A summary of physicochemical and human health hazard data for 24 ort/to-phthalate chemicals. Department of Health and Ageing, National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS). Sydney, Australia... 

However several POPs, particularly the OCPs and dioxins, remain at low levels in the Australian environment and several remain persistent at low levels in body fats and fluids of Australians. The levels reflect the past use and persistence of OCPs in the Australian environment, contamination of the food chain and the capacity of the body to metabolise and store in body fats. The dioxins remain due to the ubiquitous nature of their sources with combustion as a major source and their persistence. Future trends are likely to mean very low-level residues in human fats of DDE, cyclodienes, HCB, HCHs and dioxins in the long term. Their rate of decline will probably depend on removing HCB from chlorinated industrial chemicals and OCPs from the environment (e.g. remediation of contaminated soils) by hazardous waste treatment methods (e.g. physical, chemical and biological degradation or fixation) or secure landfill. 

Cosmetic ingredients National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) National Drugs and Poisons Scheduling Committee (NDPC) Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) State Health Departments... 

A voluntary notification and assessment for new industrial chemicals, the Interim Notification Scheme (INS), operated until 17 July 1990, under the auspices of the Australian and New Zealand Environment Council. 

NICNAS 2010, National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme, Australian Government, Gazette. 

Public Chemical Assessment Reports, National Industrial Chemical Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS), Australian Department of Environment and Heritage. Index at http //www.nicnas.gov.au/publications/car/pec/pecindex.htm. 

Regarding cosmetic ingredients, these must all be included in the Australian Inventory of Chemical Substances (AICS), if not they have to be assessed under the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS). Ingredients used for therapeutic goods must be listed in the Australian Approved Name (AAN) list. 

Besides, the list also includes the Toxic Substances Control Act in the USA (1976). the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (1994 ), the Chemical Substances Control Law in Japan (1973), and the Australian Chemicals Act (1989). These regulations, which also affect pigments, demand that all new products be registered. Various toxicological test results have to be presented, depending on the country. The discussed legal requirements are supplemented by many other more or less specific environmental acts, not only in the countries thus mentioned, but also in practically all other industrialized nations. 

A 7-year retrospective Australian study of 182 industrial bums found that 5.5% were ocular bums due to chemicals, gas explosions, and electric flashes (percentages not specified) [13]. In another Australian study of 159 cases of hospital-admitted alkali ocular bum patients from 1972-1981, the majority of bums were Grade 1 or 2 and none of these resulted in vision loss [14]. 

In a retrospective study of 148 cases of occupational eye injuries in Germany, ocular bums (not specified as chemical or other etiology) comprised 15.5% of the total [10]. In another German study of 101 patients with 131 severely burned eyes, 72.3% of the injuries were work-related, 84.2% were chemical injuries, and 79.8% of these were due to alkalis [11], Of 42 cases of alkali ocular bums admitted to a German eye clinic between 1985 and 1992, 73.8% involved industrial accidents [19]. In Finland in 1973,11.9% of all industrial accidents were ocular injuries and bums comprised 3.6% of these (chemical or other injury mechanism not specified) [12]. A 7-year retrospective Australian study of 182 industrial bums found that 5.5% were ocular bums due to chemicals, gas explosions, and electric flashes (percentages not specified) [30]. In a 4-year hospital-based study in Taiwan, of 486 patients with eye injuries, 39.9% were work-related [20]. Chemical ocular bums accounted for 19.6% of these injuries [20],... 

Co. Ltd., North Broken Hill Ltd., Australian Paper Manufacturers Ltd., Broken Hill South Ltd., I.C.I.A.N.Z. Ltd., Commonwealth Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd., Commonwealth Industrial Gases, and the Travel Fund of the University of Melbourne. Thanks are also due to Mr. B. G. Hyde for reading the manuscript and for helpful criticisms. 

There are two main factors supporting an optimistic view of the possibility of entering this foreign market. The first is the present low value of the Australian dollar. The fall of the Australian dollar between 1984 and 1987 compared to the US dollar, many of the European currencies, and particularly the Japanese yen, has given all Australian export industries a new competitiveness in the world market. This competitiveness extends to the chemical industry, and in this case to nitric acid producers. 

H. C. Bolton, J. Holland and N. H. Williams, The Grimwade Milligram Chemical Balance an early Australian attempt to establish a scientific instrument industry , Hist. Rees. Aust. Sci., 1992, 9, 107-117. 

Editor s Note. The symbolism used in this article is that of A. L. G. Rees of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific Research Industrial Organization, while that used by other authors in the symposium is that of F. A. Kroger and H. J. Vink of Phillips Research Laboratories. This was pointed out to the author, who feels that, of the accepted symbolisms for defect solids, that of Rees is best suited to convey the chemical and structural information required. 

The work was supported financially by the Australian Research Grants Committee and the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and chemical analyses were performed by the Chemistry Department of the University of Melbourne and by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria. The assistance of these bodies is gratefully acknowledged. We thank especially H. A. J. Battaerd for his encouragement and advice at many stages of the work. 

This paper does not attempt to describe all the installations which have been used in searching for stored chemical information but rather notes certain typical ones which give a picture of the present status of mechanical methods. For the most part, successfully operating installations have been limited to individual or industrial files covering a somewhat restricted field, although developments in projects of the U. S. Patent Office, Australian Patent Office, and American Society for Metals embrace wider areas of subject matter. 

Colin J. Jackson was born in Hamilton (New Zealand) and received his B.Sc. (Hons) in 2002 from the University of Otago. In 2006 he completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor David Ollis at the Australian National University. He subsequently completed a short postdoctoral fellowship under Dr. John Oakeshott at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO, Australia) before being appointed as a research scientist. He is currently on leave to take up a Marie Curie Research Fellowship at the Institut de Biologie Structurale in Grenoble, France. He is broadly interested in the structural and chemical determinants of enzymatic catalysis and enzyme engineering. 

The NMR spectra of Australian gasoline was analyzed using HCA and FA methods, allowing the influence of different chemical species on the octane number to be evaluated. Correlations between the biological demand (BOD) in industrial waste water and the NMR spectra were developed using a PLS model. 

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