Environmental exposure scenarios: development, challenges and possible solutions

Under the new REACH system, companies importing, producing and marketing chemical substances will be obliged to register the single substances and to carry out a safety assessment for all identified uses during the life cycle of the substance. This duty will apply to about 10,000 existing substances in the EU market exceeding an annual production or import volume of 10 t per company. If the substance is already known to be dangerous or turns out to be dangerous(1) during the hazard assessment, the registrant is obliged to carry out an exposure assessment and a risk characterisation for all identified uses. The goal of the safety assessment is to define the conditions of use that allow for adequate control of risk with regard to health and safety at the work place, consumer safety and protection of the environment. Once the registrant has established and documented these conditions in the Chemicals Safety Report (CSR), that information is to be communicated down the supply chain by means of the Extended Safety Data Sheet (eSDS). The ultimate aim of the new legislation is to establish duties and mechanisms that systematically prevent or limit exposure to dangerous industrial chemicals. The current paper explains this concept with regard to environmental exposure and highlights the challenges and possible solutions.