Australia consults on Draft Evaluation Statements for 1768 Industrial Chemicals

On 23 March 2023 the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS) opened consultation on 17 draft evaluation statements covering 1768 industrial chemicals. The deadline for comments is 19 May 2023. This type of consultations has been held by the AICIS on three prior occasions, first in October 2021 (1387 substances), in May 2022 (157 substances) and in October 2022 (187 substances).

Under Australia’s 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 can 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.

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 prioritizing chemicals for evaluation. Both were implemented to accelerate the risk assessment process for industrial chemicals that can be used in the country. The aim of the evaluation roadmap is to evaluate at least 20 % of the chemicals on the Australian Inventory of Industrial Chemicals (AIIC) for which a current risk assessment is not available by 30 June 2024. This would be approximately 4200 chemicals.

The list of draft evaluation statements provides an overview of the evaluations including the proposed outcomes for each chemical. For example, benzaldehyde is 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). Another example is 1-chloro-4-(trifluoromethyl)-benzene where evaluation selection analysis has indicated a potential human health risk and the AICIS proposes to vary terms of the Inventory for this substance. Most of the substances (approximately 1500 of the 1768) are not considered for in depth evaluation since they are no longer commercially active in Australia.