European Union regulators and industry agree on improving specific environmental release categories: Report from the exchange network for exposure scenarios specific environmental release category workshop onrnMay 13, 2016

摘要

Specific environmental release categories (SPERCs) are an instrument for lower-tier environmentalrnemissions assessments. They support chemical safety assessments under the European Union (EU)rnregulation Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals. SPERCs have beenrndeveloped by industry and subjected to regulatory review. Within the framework of the Chemical SafetyrnReport/Exposure Scenario Roadmap, the EU Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the EU Member State authorities, and European industry sector associations collaborate to improve the quality of the SPERCs.rnFollowing up on the outcome of ECHA's SPERC Best Practice Project, industry, together with ECHA,rndeveloped an updated SPERC factsheet template and guidance on how to fill it out. In addition, industryrndeveloped 2 sets of SPERC factsheet examples and the corresponding SPERC background documents.rnThese documents were submitted to a multistakeholder review process. The comments from the reviewrnwere discussed at a workshop in spring 2016. The workshop participants acknowledged the revisedrnfactsheet format including the corresponding guidance, the 2 SPERC factsheets, and the 2 SPERCrnbackground documents as best practice examples. The package is expected to support furtherrnimprovement of the quality of the SPERCs. A common understanding was achieved of the need to matchrnthe level of detail of the use conditions description with the risk to be controlled (i.e., the emission intensityrnand hazard profile of the substances) and with the level of conservatism of SPERC release factors. Therncomplete and transparent documentation of the derivation of the release factors and of their conservatismrnis conceived as crucial for the credibility of the SPERCs, such that they can be trusted by partners in thernchemicals supply chain and by regulators. To that end, background documents will include a dedicatedrnsection describing the conservatism of SPERCs. The workshop concluded with an outline of the practicalrnway forward for the improvement of SPERC documentation.