Australia Releases Completed Evaluation Statements of the Rolling Action Plan

Background

Australia’s Evaluations Roadmap describes a strategic approach to protect human health and the environment, which is achieved by providing information and recommendations about managing the risks that arise from introducing and using industrial chemicals. By prioritizing chemicals on the Australian Inventory of Industrial Chemicals (the Inventory), the evaluations become more risk-proportionate, timely, and targeted.

The Rolling Action Plan forms an essential part of the approach. It serves as a work plan that prioritizes chemicals for evaluation, encompassing proposed, ongoing, and recently completed evaluations based on the outcomes of the Evaluation Selection Analysis (ESA) process.

For each entry, the Rolling Action Plan includes:

• The subject of the evaluation: typically the chemical’s name or the chemical group’s name

• Reason for the evaluation

• The time it takes to evaluate

• The focus of the evaluation: chemical identity, and human health or the environment (or both)

• The amendments to the list of evaluation candidates

Released Evaluation Statements

On December 16, the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS) published eight completed evaluations under Section 78 of the Industrial Chemicals Act 2019, assessing the human health and environmental risks of certain chemicals listed on the Inventory. These evaluations have now been updated into the Rolling Action Plan.

Among the eight statements, four chemical evaluations pertain to cosmetic use. Detailed information on these evaluations is listed below: