PARENT SESSION
HA1 The EU Regulation 793/93 on existing substances: what has it delivered
9:00 AM to 1:30 PM, Thursday, 10 May 2001
Session Chair: B. Hansen
Room 1

(429) Revision of the EU-technical guidance documents for the risk evaluation of new and existing substances.

Loonen, Helene¹, Hansen, Bjorn¹, Kaland, Toralf¹, Paya-Perez, Ana¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- The EU Existing Substances Regulation (ESR) 793/93 requires a risk assessment of the priority existing substances. Since the implementation of the ESR programme in 1993, draft risk assessment reports have been completed for 74 substances out of a total of 110 priority substances. These risk assessment reports were based on the approaches described in the EU-technical guidance documents (TGD) for the risk evaluation of new and existing substances. These EU-technical guidance documents were adopted in 1995 by the EU member states. Recent scientific and technical developments and practical experience have revealed a number of areas, which would benefit from revision. The revision process is currently ongoing, and is driven by the discussion meetings with experts from EU-governments, industry and NGO 's. Widely varying aspects of the risk assessment are under discussion, including both aspects of the exposure assessment as well as the ecotoxicological effects assessment. Major challenges are the inclusion of an approach for the risk assessment of the marine environment as well as the risk assessment of biocides.

Key words: risk assessment