PANEL 4: Speeding up chemical assessments: from novel information to new management approaches, what works? - Brian Richards, Executive Director, Office of Chemical Safety, Australia

1. nicnas.gov.au Slide 1
New approaches to accelerate risk
assessment
Dr Brian Richards
Executive Director, Office of Chemical Safety, Australian
Government

2. nicnas.gov.au Slide 2
NICNAS reforms – a new approach to risk
assessment
Targeted approach to risk assessment
■ make regulatory effort proportionate to risk by
explicitly considering hazard and exposure
■ maintain health and environment protections
■ use international hazard data for local risk assessment
13 June 2017
Low risk chemicals
reduce pre-market
regulatory
requirements
increase post-
market monitoring
Higher risk
chemicals
pre-market
assessment

3. nicnas.gov.au Slide 3
Flexible acceptance of testing methods
13 June 2017
Reducing reliance on animal
testing
■ increase acceptance of silico and
in vitro methods to fulfil
regulatory requirements
■ implement ban on animal testing
for cosmetic ingredients
■ apply ‘weight of evidence’: in
silico < in vitro/in chemico < in
vivo

4. nicnas.gov.au Slide 4
Responsive evaluations
■ Evaluation triggers:
 international regulatory action
 adverse event reports
 requests from risk managers or government
agencies
 prioritised by NICNAS (own motion)
■ flexible process – tailored to focus on issue(s) of
concern
■ voluntary or mandatory calls for information
13 June 2017
Reforms allow evaluation of any industrial chemical (or
group of chemicals):

5. nicnas.gov.au Slide 5
Grouping chemicals
■ NICNAS Inventory Multi-Tiered Assessment and
Prioritisation (IMAP) framework groups chemicals to
‘read across’ data for one chemical to similar chemicals
with no (or limited) data
■ faster output of high quality risk assessments
■ increases availability of chemical safety information
■ maximises use of international information
■ key IMAP elements will be applied to post-reform
evaluations
13 June 2017
Accelerate evaluations by grouping similar chemicals:

6. nicnas.gov.au Slide 6
nicnas.gov.au
Thank you!
Dr Brian Richards
brian.richards@nicnas.gov.au