EU Risk Assessments
 The five main phthalate
plasticisers, DINP, DIDP, DEHP, BBP and DBP have all undergone
comprehensive European Union Risk Assessments conducted under
European Union Regulation 793/93. This legislation, which is now
replaced by the new EU chemicals legislation REACH, sets out a
framework for the evaluation of the risks to human health and the
environment from substances.
Under the Regulation 793/93, substances were prioritised for
risk assessment on the basis of their production volumes. For each
prioritised substance, experts from one national government
volunteered to draft the European Union's assessment of the
substance.
In each case the rapporteur country worked with other national
experts, industry and third parties to collate data and draft an
assessment in the form of a draft risk assessment report.
This comprehensive assessment of all existing scientific
evidence examined the properties of the respective phthalates, the
levels at which the substance may cause adverse effects and the
worse case scenarios of exposure.
This assessment of exposure examined both regional exposure
levels and exposure via routes such as consumer articles. The draft
report was then agreed by consensus with technical experts from all
European Union national governments.
Scientific review
The Risk Assessment Report was then peer-reviewed by the
European Union's highest source of independent scientific advice at
that time, the Scientific Committee on Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and
the Environment, which gives its opinion to the European Commission
on the quality of the risk assessments.
Conclusions of the Reports
On the basis of the Risk Assessment Report, national experts
either recommended that there was no need to adopt any further
measures than those currently in place to protect human health or
the environment, or they proposed measures to be taken to reduce
the risk.
The conclusions were agreed by European Union national
governments and the European Commission and were subsequently
published in the Official Journal of the European Union and on the
European Commission's Joint Research Centre website.
OECD
The Risk Assessment Reports are also presented to the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as a
contribution to the Chapter 19, Agenda 21 goals for evaluating
chemicals, agreed at the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
The risk assessment reports, summary reports and the
announcements in the EU Official Journal are available on the
following web pages:
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