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Ten new, updated, or corrected Test Guidelines have been adopted by the OECD Council

The new Test Guidelines are: TG 457 and TG 460. The updated Test Guidelines are TG 109, TG 114, TG 229, TG 211, TG 305, TG 455, and TG 405. The corrected Test Guideline is TG 443




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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs’ Aquatic Life Benchmarks now available on eChemPortal

The aquatic life benchmarks (for freshwater species) are based on toxicity values reviewed by EPA and used in the Agency's most recent risk assessments developed as part of the decision-making process for pesticide registration. Each Aquatic Life Benchmark is based on the most sensitive, scientifically acceptable toxicity endpoint available for a given taxon of all scientifically acceptable toxicity data available to EPA.




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Application, use and presentation of pollutant release and transfer registers (prtr) data

This document outlines the current status of and available guidance documents/tools on the application, use and presentation of PRTR data in OECD member countries and the Commission for Environmental Co-operation based on the results of a survey conducted in November 2011.




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Global Pollutant Release And Transfer Register: Proposal for a harmonised list of reporting sectors

This document compares sectors of industrial activities and their reporting thresholds among different national / regional PRTRs to improve the comparability of PRTR data, and proposes a harmonised list of sectors.




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Test Guidelines: Updates

On 26 July 2013, the OECD Council adopted three new, six updated and one corrected OECD Test Guidelines for the testing of chemicals, as well as a new Introduction to the Section 5, Part A on Pesticides Residue Chemistry.




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The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) database of completed chemical reviews is now searchable in eChemPortal

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) database of completed chemical reviews including (in some cases) detailed risk assessment reports addressing human health and the environment. A review, initiated from new concerns, may lead to the reconsideration of the registration of agricultural and veterinary chemicals in the marketplace if potential risks to safety and performance have been identified.




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The Gefahrstoffdatenbank der Länder is now linked to eChemPortal

The Gefahrstoffdatenbank der Länder, a german database, is now linked to eChemPortal. 102545 substance records can be searched through the substance search. This includes German hazardous substances legislation as well as other sources reflecting the state of technology and occupational health and safety relating to activities involving hazardous substances. In addition, it contains links to various other German data bases.




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Low-level presence of transgenic plants in seed and grain commodities: Environmental risk/safety Assessment, and availability and use of information

This Biosafety document aims to serve as an aid to risk assessors and regulators; providing guidance on handling the aspects of an environmental safety assessment, accessing and using information in situations of low-level presence (LLP) of transgenic plants in seed and grain commodities.




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Help us to help you. A new survey is on-line to collect eChemPortal user feedback

eChemPortal uses are encouraged to respond to the on-line survey. Your use of the portal, your expectations, information, substance search, property search, structure search, design and layout. Your answers will help us improve eChemPortal - the Global Portal to Information on Chemical Substances, worldwide source of information about chemicals from authorities and international organisations, to meet your needs.




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Ecotoxicology and Environmental Fate of Manufactured Nanomaterials: Test Guidelines

This document includes the conclusions and recommendations resulting from a workshop that addressed the ecotoxicology and environmental fate of manufactured nanomaterials, and in particular the applicability of existing OECD Test Guidelines (TG) related to these topics. A number of TG developments are underway at OECD as a follow-up to these recommendations.




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Pesticide compliance and enforcement: new website

Safeguarding people’s health and the environment through responsible marketing and use of pesticides in agriculture relies on regulation, and compliance with this regulation. OECD have launched an online resource to help regulators in different countries share their experiences and best practice and to act as a portal for information on pesticide compliance and enforcement.




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Emission scenario document on formulation and application of thermal and carbonless copy paper

This document provides information on the sources, use patterns, and potential release pathways of chemicals used in the manufacture of thermal and carbonless copy paper. It presents approaches for estimating the environmental releases of and occupational exposures to additives and components used in thermal and carbonless copy paper coatings.




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Managing pesticide risk to insect pollinators: new website

This website gives information about the regulatory approaches adopted by OECD member countries to mitigate pesticide risks to insect pollinators. Following a survey of OECD member countries, it was concluded that mitigation of risks to insect pollinators is important to all its member countries, and that mitigation is a critical component of balancing the benefits of plant protection products with potential risks to insect pollinators.




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The Global Harmonised Submission Transport Standard (GHSTS) has been published

The first version of the Globally Harmonised Submission and Transport Standard was published May 2014. The GHSTS is a standardised set of technical specifications used to assemble electronic files for any pesticide package in a predefined manner. Once the files are assembled according to the specifications, they can be transferred from a business entity to a regulatory authority and can be extracted for use in a regulatory process.




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Weight of evidence assessment for the skin sensitisation potential of 4-isopropylaniline

This OECD monograph demonstrates how a chemical hazard assessment that considers and ranks all available relevant information - a so-called weight of evidence approach - can be constructed to conclude on a particular hazard endpoint for a chemical, in this case, skin sensitisation for 4-isopropylaniline.




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Report of the OECD expert meeting on the physical chemical properties of manufactured nanomaterials and test guidelines

This report includes the conclusions and recommendation of an expert workshop on Physical-Chemical Properties of Manufactured Nanomaterials and Test Guidelines organized by OECD’s Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials. The workshop addressed issues relevant to the physical-chemical properties of manufactured nanomaterials from a regulatory perspective point with a view to the need for new or adapted test guidelines.




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New scoping document on in vitro and ex vivo assays for the identification of modulators of thyroid hormone signalling

This scoping document brings forward relevant in vitro and ex vivo thyroid assays to the attention of OECD member countries, and provide recommendations for their further development/use, and also, to identify aspects of the thyroid signalling pathway that are not covered and would require further attention




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The joint Substance Data Pool of the German Federal Government and the German Federal States (GSBL) is the 30th database linked to eChemPortal

The Joint Substance Data Pool of the German Federal Government and Federal States (GSBL) is now linked to eChemPortal. Records contain information on physical and chemical properties, on ecotoxicological and toxicological parameters and on environmental fate. They provide descriptions of environmental hazards, health dangers, fire and other technical hazards and give information on relevant chemicals-related legislation.




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New, updated and corrected OECD Test Guidelines for the testing of chemicals – 26 September 2014

On 26 September 2014, the OECD Council adopted three new, five updated and one corrected OECD Test Guidelines for the testing of chemicals.




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Global Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR): Proposal for a harmonised list of pollutant

PRTR have been established throughout the world to track releases and transfers of potentially harmful chemicals. But most of the PRTR systems were designed without considering comparability, each PRTR has its own requirement of reporting chemicals and sectors. To harmonise globally, OECD reviewed the reporting chemicals and sectors across PRTR systems and produced proposal for harmonised lists of reporting pollutants.




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Guidance Document for Describing Non-Guideline In Vitro Test Methods

This guidance is intended to harmonise the way non-guideline in vitro test methods are described. This should in future facilitate an assessment of the relevance of test methods for biological activities and responses of interest, of the quality of data produced, irrespective of whether these tests are based on manual protocols or assay protocols adapted for use on automated platforms or high-throughput screening systems (HTS).




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Launch of 2 OECD Test Guidelines on human hazard endpoint skin sensitisation

The OECD has just published two new Test Guidelines on human health hazard endpoint skin sensitisation. Skin sensitisation refers to an allergic response following skin contact with the tested chemical, as defined by the United Nations Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (UN GHS).




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A new guidance is now available to facilitate the ecological risk assessment of organometallic and organic metal salt substances

The OECD has published guidance to facilitate the ecological risk assessment of organometallic and organic metal salt substances. A strategy is presented based on key steps that first consider the fate of these substances in the environment, the identification of moieties of concern, and subsequently the selection of an appropriate path forward to either assess the inorganic moiety and/or the individual substance.




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Policy Perspectives - Nanotechnology and Tyres: Greening Indsutry and Tyres

An OECD policy perspective is now available which describes some of the major highlights from an OECD report on Nanotechnology and Tyres: Greening Industry and Transport.




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IOMC Online Toolbox for Implementing Chemical Safety

The new version of the IOMC Toolbox for Decision Making in Chemicals Management provides a set of interactive features allowing governments to use it as a platform for collaboration among ministries, agencies, and other stakeholders such as industry. Users can save their information, add comments, and share and discuss issues with colleagues and partners.




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Newly published set of Test Guidelines

A set of new and updated OECD Test Guidelines was published at the end of July 2015 to test chemicals and identify hazards such as endocrine disruption, serious eye damage, genotoxicity, skin irritation or corrosion.




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Physical-Chemical Properties of Nanomaterials: Evaluation of Methods Applied in the OECD-WPMN Testing Programme

This new document focuses on the evaluation of test methods applied to determine the physico-chemical properties of different types of nanomaterials.




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Application of Good Laboratory Practice Principles to Computerised Systems

This new Advisory Document replaces the 1995 consensus document on the Application of the Principles of GLP to Computerised Systems. It retains all of the key text from the original 1995 document, but includes new text to reflect the current state-of-the art in this field.




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German database Information system für gefährliche Stoffe IGS

German database Information system für gefährliche Stoffe IGS is now linked to eChemPortal. The IGS provides public access to a variety of information on chemical and microbiological substances mostly in German. The focus is on regulatory information reflecting German and European, as well as Swiss, US and selected other legislation and assessments. Beside this, information on substance data and emergency procedures is available.




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OECD publishes new and updated Test Guidelines for effects on human health and on environmental species

The OECD Guidelines for the Testing of Chemicals is a collection of about 150 of the most relevant internationally agreed testing methods used by government, industry and independent laboratories to identify and characterise potential hazards of chemicals. Every year new and updated Test Guidelines are adopted to meet the regulatory needs in OECD member countries. The most recent Test Guidelines were adopted in July 2016.




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Classification and Labelling of Chemicals

Results of a joint pilot project of the OECD and the UN Sub-Committee of Exports on the Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (UNSCEGHS) including a report of the results of the pilot and non-biding proposed classifications for three substances.




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Publications in the series on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers

This new council act recommends that Member countries take steps to establish, as appropriate, implement and make publicly available a pollutant release and transfer register (PRTR) system using the principles and information set forth in the OECD Guidance Documents on PRTRs.




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Guidance on Change of Ownership in Hazardous Facilities

The OECD releases a Guidance on Change of Ownership in Hazardous Facilities. This Guidance is a concise document providing a framework to assist stakeholders to identify, understand and minimise the risks during and after a change of ownership at a hazardous facility, and help make the change of ownership a better informed process.




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Genome Editing: Applications in Agriculture

The OECD Conference on Genome Editing: Applications in Agriculture – Implications for Health, Environment and Regulation will explore the regulatory considerations raised by genome edited products, with the aim to favour a coherent policy approach to facilitate innovation involving genome editing. More information on the programme and the speakers.




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Revised Guidance Document 150 on Standardised Test Guidelines for Evaluating Chemicals for Endocrine Disruption

This guidance document was originally published in 2012 and updated in 2018 to reflect new and updated OECD test guidelines, as well as reflect on scientific advances in the use of test methods and assessment of the endocrine activity of chemicals. The document is intended to provide guidance for evaluating chemical using standardised test guidelines.




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International Uniform ChemicaL Information Database (IUCLID)

This report outlines the customisation opportunities for IUCLID version 6. It also gives an overview of what IUCLID offers to regulatory bodies and industry as a key application to record, store, maintain and exchange data on chemicals. IUCLID is used in a variety of countries and regulatory contexts, therefore the report describes to which extent it is customisable to facilitate the management of chemical data across these contexts.




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Publications in the Series on the Safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials

Nanomaterials have unique physical and chemical features. OECD's Decision Framework and Guiding Principles tools fill data gaps in the hazard characterisation by identifying the most useful parameters and best available methods for a given type of nanomaterial.




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OECD Series on Principles of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and Compliance Monitoring

The purpose of this document is to give guidance to Receiving Authorities on the evaluation of the GLP compliance status of nonclinical safety studies submitted for regulatory purposes. This guidance does not address the scientific evaluation and interpretation of the submitted data or the risk assessment based on these data.




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Series on Testing and Assessment: publications by number

This document is intended to provide universal Guiding Principles that should be considered when developing or augmenting systematic approaches to Weight of Evidence (WoE) for chemical evaluation and Key Elements to formulating a systematic approach to WoE. The ultimate goal is to facilitate that regulators follow a consistent, clear and transparent delivery of evidence using the Principles and Elements described in this document.




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The Slow Lane: The secret garden with healing properties

Kew may be 70 times bigger than the Physic Garden, but historically Chelsea is the mother ship




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The Slow Lane: World leader in the art of living

Paris is organised around culture to a degree unimaginable in mercantile, muddled-up London




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The Slow Lane: Ripeness on the tree of life

Victor Erice is one of those rare film directors who show time passing apparently at its own pace




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The Slow Lane: Ancient lessons for modern lives

There are profound reasons for studying the languages, literature and civilisations of the Greeks and Romans




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The Slow Lane: Where myths match reality

The story of Sisyphus compares quite well with the experience of zero-hours contracts




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The Slow Lane: Dumplings and humanity

Taipei’s MRT is the only underground railway where someone has offered to tie up my shoelace




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The Republicans need more than money

The taming of the Tea Party leaves the GOP short on the ideological message the voters like




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Republicans reconnect with angry voters

The defenestration of Cantor sends a message to the cosy world of party bigwigs and donors




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The limitations of democracy

Elected rulers use heavy-handed authority to prevent being toppled by swings in opinion




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Perry and the fallibility of US justice

It would be wrong for charges against the Texas governor to be allowed through the courts




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With Ebola, a little panic is healthy

The conditions of managing this crisis are coming to resemble those at Chernobyl