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The Chemical Safety Assessment under REACH: principles and early feedback Volume 16, issue 2, March-April 2017

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  • Figure 2

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Authors
1 ANSES
4, rue Pierre et Marie Curie
94701 Maisons-Alfort Cedex
France
2 Institut des sciences de la communication (UMS 3665)
CNRS/Université Paris Sorbonne/UPMC
20, rue Berbier du Mets
75013 Paris
France
3 Laboratoire d’analyses de surveillance et d’expertise de la Marine de Toulon
BCRM Toulon – BN TOULON/LASEM – BP61
83800 Toulon Cedex 9
France
* Tirés à part

A REACH Chemical Safety Assessment (CSA) is required for each chemical produced or imported in Europe in quantities of over 10 tons a year. This article presents the principles of the CSA and its similarities with risk assessment methods applied in other regulatory frameworks (in the fields of environmental and occupational health). It then discusses certain limitations and possible improvements based on the first REACH registration dossiers evaluated by ANSES (French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety): the inconsistent quality of registration dossiers, the characterization of worker exposure, the applicability of the risk management measures used in the dossiers, and the use of existing toxicological reference values. REACH has created a unique database on the hazards and risks of thousands of chemicals on the European market. This article also provides several ways of improving the quality of data provided by industry, particularly desirable for the last registration phase - due on 31 May 2018 - for substances produced in quantities between 1 and 100 T/year.