AICIS Opens Public consultation on Draft Evaluation Statements

On 29 September 2023, the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS) opened consultation on 20 draft evaluation statements covering 1996 industrial chemicals. The deadline for comments is 27 November 2023.

This type of consultation has been conducted by the AICIS on four previous occasions, first in October 2021 (1387 substances), in May 2022 (157 substances), in October 2022 (187 substances) and in May 2023 (1768 substances).

Evaluation roadmap

The evaluations are a part of Australia’s Evaluation Roadmap for 2024 and beyond, published in September 2021 and the accompanying rolling action plan for prioritising chemicals for evaluation. Both have been implemented to accelerate the risk assessment process for industrial chemicals that can be used in the country. The evaluation roadmap aims to evaluate at least 20 % of the chemicals on the Australian Inventory of Industrial Chemicals (AIIC) that do not have an up-to-date risk assessment by 30 June 2024 and the remaining unassed industrial chemicals of higher concern by the end of 2030.

Under the Australian Industrial Chemicals Act 2019, any chemical that meets the definition of an industrial chemical (or class of industrial chemicals) may be subject to evaluation. Evaluations may cover a single chemical, a class or group of chemicals, a specific use, a specific hazard, a specific exposure, or specific circumstances of a chemical introduction.

Draft Evaluation statements

The list of draft evaluation statements provides an overview of the evaluations including the proposed outcomes for each chemical. Some examples are:

• Acetoin, cinnamaldehyde, diethylene glycol, and ethylene glycol are evaluated in order to provide information on human health risks, focusing on the risk to public health from the use of the chemical in e-cigarettes (vaping products).

• 2-Methoxyethyl methacrylate and 2-ethoxyethyl methacrylate where the evaluation selection analysis has indicated a potential risk to human health and the AICIS proposes to vary the terms of the Inventory for this substance. The substances are used in nail enhancement products (such as artificial nails)

The majority of the substances (approximately 1800 of the 1996 substances) are not considered for in-depth evaluation because they are no longer commercially active in Australia.

The full list of Draft Evaluation Statements can be found here.