This is a guidance on sample preparation and dosimetry, to which special attention should be paid when testing nanomaterials for human health and environmental safety endpoints.

This is the report of the workshop on Natural-hazard triggered technological accidents (Natech) that took place 23-25 May 2012. It investigated the specific elements of the prevention of, preparedness for, and response to chemical accidents caused by natural hazard or natural disaster.

This document provides information on current/planned activities related to the safety of manufactured nanomaterials in OECD member and non-member countries that attended at the 10th meeting of OECD’s Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (Paris France, 27-29 June 2012).

Malaysia has joined the OECD system for the Mutual Acceptance of Data (MAD) in the Assessment of Chemicals, ensuring that its non-clinical safety data related to the protection of human health and the environment will be accepted by all 40 countries adhering to MAD.

This guidance document intends to provide an insight into which pieces of information that are necessary to identify and document an adverse outcome pathway (AOP) and how to present them. The AOP concept has been developed as a means of providing transparent mechanistic justification and weight-of-evidence to reduce uncertainty in the predictions for complex toxicological endpoints.

This document provides guidance on pesticide residue studies and describes differences in OECD countries in livestock feeding practices and diet composition. The data obtained from these studies allow quantifying the transfer of residues from feedstuff to animal and establishing maximum limits which ensure that these residues do not pose unacceptable risks for consumers.

11/07/2013 –Recently the OECD released the third generation of the QSAR Toolbox. For this purpose, the guidance document for grouping chemicals to fill data gaps for acute aquatic toxicity have been updated. This guidance document should support the user of the QSAR Toolbox to build categories that are mechanistically and structurally robust.

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.

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.

This document follows on from a report entitled Important Issues on Risk Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials [ENV/JM/MONO(2012)8]. This report identified a range of issues which the WPMN considered important in risk assessment and which should be addressed in the future. It summarised results of a survey which was circulated to delegations of the WPMN, methodologies used to analyze the survey, and the identified priorities.

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.

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.

The OECD has recommended its Member Countries apply existing international and national chemical regulatory frameworks to manage the risks associated with manufactured nanomaterials.

The OECD has published a revision of the 2003 Emission Scenario Document on Wood Preservatives to take into account the experience gained in working with the 2003 ESD. The document has been totally restructured, emission scenarios have been updated and new, niche scenarios have been added. The document is an essential tool for Member countries working in the area of biocidal products assessment.

This document supplies basic information useful in the risk and safety assessment of food and feed using new varieties of oyster mushroom: compositional considerations, key constituents (nutrients, anti-nutrients and toxicants). It is issued in the Novel Food and Feed Safety Series.

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.

This report describes an OECD seminar that brought together regulatory authorities, industry representatives and other stakeholders to discuss how to measure the uptake, adoption and implementation, as well as the impact, of Integrated Pest Management. Integrated Pest Management, a term used to describe strategies that promote the safer and more sustainable use of pesticides, is high on the agenda in many regions of the world.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in agriculture is high on the agenda in many countries. IPM is about promoting the sustainable use of pesticides in the context of challenges including climate change, increasing demand for food, feed and fibres and pest resistance. OECD has launched the IPM Hub, an online focal point for information on Integrated Pest Management.

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.

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.

The webinar will specifically be looking at recent developments in alternatives to long chain PFCs. Per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) have been in use since the 1950s as ingredients or intermediates of surfactants and surface protectors for assorted industrial and consumer applications.

This document compiles information on the current methodologies, tools and models and helps readers identify appropriate models/ and methodologies for estimating substance-specific removal/emissions from wastewater treatment systems. It could support efforts to improve these models and tools.

OECD major events and activities relating to biotechnologies: latest developments are updated biannually in this Newsletter

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.

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.

This guidance document proposes an integrated approach on testing and assessment for skin corrosion and irritation, in view of replacing the "testing and evaluation strategy" provided in the supplement to OECD TG404 (to be updated), provides information on key performance characteristics of each information source comprising the IATA, and guidance on how to integrate information for decision making for classification and labeling.

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

This report of a survey collates member countries’ approaches to manage and mitigate the risk of pesticide use near residential areas.

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.

The OECD is pleased to announce, together with the U.S Environmental Protection Agency and the European Commission Joint Research Centre, the Adverse Outcome Pathway Knowledge Base (AOP KB). This is a web-based platform which aims to bring together all the knowledge on how chemicals can induce adverse effects, therefore providing a focal point for AOP development and dissemination.

This advisory document provides guidance on how pathology peer reviews should be planned, conducted and reported within the context of OECD Good Laboratory Practice.

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

The OECD has published a report on a pilot chemical classification exercise undertaken in 2013 and ‘14. Using a number of chemical assessments agreed in the OECD hazard assessment programme, reasons why classification proposals may differ were investigated. The report concludes on the main reasons for such differences, and recommends some measures to overcome some of them.

An addendum to the OECD Guiding Principles on Chemical Accident Prevention, Preparedness and Response to address Natural Hazards Triggering Technological Accidents (Natech) Risk Management has just been published. The addendum consists of a number of amendments to the Guiding Principles and the addition of a new Chapter to provide more detailed guidance on Natech prevention, preparedness and response.

This toolbox is a compilation of resources relevant to chemical substitution and alternatives assessments. Alternative assessments are processes for identifying, comparing and selecting safer alternatives to replace hazardous chemicals with the objective of promoting sustainable production and consumption.

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).

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.

In 2011, Brazil joined OECD’s Mutual Acceptance of Data (MAD) system ensuring that its chemical safety test data will be accepted by all 40 countries adhering to MAD. Originally limited to data developed in Brazil on pesticides, biocides and industrial chemicals, it now also includes veterinary products, feed additives, cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, sanitizers, wood preservative and treatments of effluents and natural ecosystems.

Today the OECD marks the end of a seven year experimental testing programme, investigating 11 commercially viable nanomaterials across 110 chemical tests. The results were co-ordinated across 11 countries with tests and data generated from government agencies, universities, research institutions and businesses. Over 780 studies on the specific properties of nanomaterials were undertaken.

The OECD eChemPortal, a web portal which offers comprehensive information on chemical substances, has been updated to offer better access to chemical classifications according to the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS).

The OECD/UNEP Global PFC group has published two new reports to support efforts in the framework of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) to improve information sharing at a global level on perfluorinated chemistries.

This document provides background information on activities related to manufactured nanomaterials, as well as other activities on nanotechnologies at the international level. The information provided in this document captures OECD activities between February and December 2013.

The OECD has published fundamental and guiding principles to facilitate the application of QSAR methods to the risk assessment of chemicals. The main focus is on the critical role of mechanistic consideration in improving various (Q)SAR approaches and possible integrative approaches of combining chemoinformatics and bioinformatics.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

GLP issues raised by testing labs are covered in this comprehensive list of questions and answers, recently updated with questions related to: sponsors, Contract Research Organisations (CROs), sub-contractors, archives, Information Technology (IT), Biotechnology/GMOs and other miscellaneous issues

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.