Risk management international chemicals

Van der Schaaf, T.W. 1996. PRISMA A Risk Management Tool Based on Incident Analysis, International Conference and Workshop on Process Safety Management and Inherently Safer Processes, Center for Chemical Process Safety of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York. 

There is a growing need to better characterize the health risk related to occupational and environmental exposure to pesticides. Risk characterization is a basic step in the assessment and management of the health risks related to chemicals (Tordoir and Maroni, 1994). Evaluation of exposure, which may be performed through environmental and biological monitoring, is a fundamental component of risk assessment. Biomarkers are useful tools that may be used in risk assessment to confirm exposure or to quantify it by estimating the internal dose. Besides their use in risk assessment, biomarkers also represent a fundamental tool to improve the effectiveness of medical and epidemiological surveillance. 

This book includes the results of a Coordination Action funded by the European Union called RISKCYCLE (risk-based management of chemicals and products in a circular economy at a global scale). This project (n. 226552) started the 1st of September of 2009 and ended on the 31st of August 2012. Its main objective was to establish and coordinate a global network of European and international experts and stakeholders from worldwide countries (e.g., European countries, China, India, Brazil, Vietnam) to assess the risks of hazardous chemicals and additives contained in different daily products. 

The project enables risk assessments (or components thereof) to be performed using internationally accepted methods, and these assessments can then be shared to avoid duplication and optimize use of valuable resources for risk management. It also promotes sound science as a basis for risk management decisions, promotes transparency in risk assessment and reduces unnecessary testing of chemicals. Advances in scientific knowledge can be translated into new harmonized methods. 

Regional and International Effort for Risk Assessment and the Management of Chemicals... 

Ms. Claire Weill, Program Manager, Risks, Precaution ft Chemicals Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations, France... 

The relevance of REACH goes beyond the transformation of EU chemicals safety management. Internally, REACH S institutional design and procedural sequences may well become a model for EU risk regulation generally (Pesendorfer 2006). 

When designating which ministry is to have primary responsibility for chemicals control, familiarity with legislation of relevance for the management of chemical risks is of importance. Therefore, countries often confer responsibility for chemicals legislation on ministries of the environment or ministries of health. Ministries of the environment (or the like) may be preferable due to the fact that issues of risk assessment and risk management in general, as well as for chemicals, are frequently dealt with in these ministries (air, water and soil pollution, waste problems). Furthermore, modem chemicals control at an international level, in addition to focusing on health problems, focuses very much on environmental risks and environmentally mediated health risks, such as problems with POPs. 

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