DUTCH PRIORITY SETTING SYSTEM FOR EXISTING CHEMICALS: a systematic procedure for ranking chemicals according to increasing estimated hazards. To be incorporated into the UNIFORM SYSTEM FOR THE EVALUATION OF SUBSTANCES (USES)

Abstract

This report describes the Dutch PRiority Setting system for Existing Chemicals (PRISEC). PRISEC is designed to be incorporated into the Uniform System for Evaluation of Substances together with the Dutch Risk Assessment System for New Chemicals and the Dutch Risk Assessment System for Pesticides. The Uniform System for the Evaluation of Substances is developed in order to comply with action point 41 of the Dutch National Environmental Policy Plan. PRISEC will be used as decision support system by institutes involved in assessment procedures for chemicals and by ministeries. Furthermore it will be available to industry. The procedure proposed in this document has been desgined to link up with the proposed Council Regulation on the evaluation and control of the environmental risks of existing substances. In PRISEC existing chemicals are ranked according to the probability that, upon in-depth hazard assessment, they may turn out hazardous. The ranking is based on the quotient of predicted dose/no-effect dose or predicted environmental concentration (PEC)/no-effect concentration (NEC), estimated for each of the chemicals. These quotients are derived for adverse effects on the targets: ecosystems and man. The main components of PRISEC are: data input handling, exposure assessment, effects assessment, hazard assessment, and ranking. PRISEC has been tested on functionality using data on 34 example chemicals.<br>