TY - JOUR

T1 - Socio-economic analysis for the authorisation of chemicals under REACH

T2 - a case of very high concern?

AU - Gabbert, Silke

AU - Scheringer, Martin

AU - Ng, Carla A

AU - Stolzenberg, Hans-Christian

N1 - Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PY - 2014/11

Y1 - 2014/11

N2 - Under the European chemicals' legislation, REACH, substances that are identified to be of "very high concern" will de facto be removed from the market unless the European Commission grants authorisations permitting specific uses. Companies who apply for an authorisation without demonstrating "adequate control" of the risks have to show by means of a socio-economic analysis (SEA) that positive impacts of use outweigh negative impacts for human health and ecosystems. This paper identifies core challenges where further in-depth guidance is urgently required in order to ensure that a SEA can deliver meaningful results and that it can effectively support decision-making on authorisation. In particular, we emphasise the need (i) to better guide the selection of tools for impact assessment, (ii) to explicitly account for stock pollution effects in impact assessments for persistent and very persistent chemicals, (iii) to define suitable impact indicators for PBT/vPvB chemicals given the lack of reliable information about safe concentration levels, (iv) to guide how impacts can be transformed into values for decision-making, and (v) to provide a well-balanced discussion of discounting of long-term impacts of chemicals.

AB - Under the European chemicals' legislation, REACH, substances that are identified to be of "very high concern" will de facto be removed from the market unless the European Commission grants authorisations permitting specific uses. Companies who apply for an authorisation without demonstrating "adequate control" of the risks have to show by means of a socio-economic analysis (SEA) that positive impacts of use outweigh negative impacts for human health and ecosystems. This paper identifies core challenges where further in-depth guidance is urgently required in order to ensure that a SEA can deliver meaningful results and that it can effectively support decision-making on authorisation. In particular, we emphasise the need (i) to better guide the selection of tools for impact assessment, (ii) to explicitly account for stock pollution effects in impact assessments for persistent and very persistent chemicals, (iii) to define suitable impact indicators for PBT/vPvB chemicals given the lack of reliable information about safe concentration levels, (iv) to guide how impacts can be transformed into values for decision-making, and (v) to provide a well-balanced discussion of discounting of long-term impacts of chemicals.

KW - Chemistry

KW - Authorisation of chemicals

KW - Decision-support

KW - Persistent chemicals

KW - REACH

KW - Socio-economic analysis

KW - Stock pollution effects

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84907809227&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.yrtph.2014.08.013

DO - 10.1016/j.yrtph.2014.08.013

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 25220186

VL - 70

SP - 564

EP - 571

JO - Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP

JF - Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP

SN - 0273-2300

IS - 2

ER -