Australia Publishes Roadmap and Work Plan for Industrial Chemicals Evaluations

On September 17, 2021, Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS) published a notice^[1] on the strategic approaches to the evaluation of industrial chemicals on its website – the Evaluations Roadmap^[2] (hereinafter refers to as the Roadmap) and the Rolling Action Plan^[3] (hereinafter refers to as the Plan).

Evaluations Roadmap

This Roadmap is formulated to accelerate the evaluation of the industrial chemicals that can be used in Australia, aiming to “ensure that the introduction of chemicals to Australia is supported by contemporary information and recommendations about managing potential risks associated with their use”.

According to the Roadmap, AICIS intends to achieve this goal by:

• identifying and prioritising industrial chemicals for evaluation

• producing targeted, risk-proportionate, transparent and evidence-based evaluations and recommendations to risk managers

• providing high quality information and risk management advice for the safe use of industrial chemicals

The Roadmap put forward the key target of evaluating “at least 20% of chemicals on the Inventory for which a current risk assessment is not available” by the end of 2024, including:

• inactive chemicals

• chemicals unlikely to need further regulation to manage risks

• higher concern chemicals

Information on chemicals that unlikely need further regulation to manage human health and environmental risks based on their hazards and exposures will be published, helping stakeholders make informed choices about the selection and use of industrial chemicals.

Additionally, AICIS targets evaluating the remaining unassessed higher concern industrial chemicals by the end of 2030. The compliance information and new available data that traced from a wide variety of sources will be used to help review and reset targets regularly.

The following 6 action areas are critical to meet the targets:

• strengthening national capacity for industrial chemical risk reduction,

• creating risk-proportionate, transparent and targeted evaluations,

• producing targeted and evidence-based evaluations through effective use of data,

• supporting best practice through education and training,

• utilising global chemical intelligence for innovation; and

• enabling choices about the use of chemicals through the provision of risk information.

Rolling Action Plan

This Plan is AICIS’s work plan for prioritising chemicals for evaluation, which lists the proposed, ongoing and recently completed chemical evaluations. By prioritising chemicals which are selected based on the outcomes of the Evaluation Selection Analysis^[4] (ESA) process, the evaluations of industrial chemical are more risk-proportionate, timely and targeted. The publication of these evaluations should satisfy the requirements of the Industrial Chemicals Act 2019^[5] for initiating an evaluation.

These evaluations will be listed on the AICIS website, including:

• the subject of the evaluation – typically the chemical name or chemical group name

• the reason for the evaluation

• the time it takes to do the evaluation

• the focus of the evaluation – chemical identity, and human health or the environment (or both)

• the status of the evaluation – for example, in progress, public consultation, completed

• the amendments to the list of evaluation candidates

AICIS will update the Plan after publishing the evaluations and add details of newly initiated evaluation. Therefore, stakeholders can be provided with more information and timely recommendations on the chemicals they intend to use.