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

A cooperative global approach to the regulation of agricultural pesticides and sustainable pest management. Pesticides are widely used in agriculture and have considerable benefits by contributing to a sustainable production of food and feed. If used improperly or in an inappropriate manner, they also can present unacceptable risks to human and animal health and to the environment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

France has improved its environmental performance over the last decade, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, reducing some air pollutants and cutting its use of fresh water. Further effort will be needed, however, to reduce pollution by nitrates and pesticides and meet ambitious renewable energy targets, according to a new OECD report.

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.

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.

Join us for our per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances webinar on Best Environmental Practices (BEP) for Textiles

This paper reviews and compares five case studies on quantification and economic valuation of benefits in cost-benefit analyses (CBAs) of regulating phthalates, mercury, PFOA (perfluoro-octanic acid) and its salts, NMP (1 methyl-2-pyrroloidine) and formaldehyde. The case studies had all been carried out as part of the SACAME project, and the purpose of the present paper is to draw out cross-cutting findings from these studies.

The Product Release and Exposure Data Warehouse is a Microsoft® Access 2016 database is designed to house existing data on releases of chemicals from, and exposures to, commercial and consumer end products. A number of forms provide a simple approach to data entry and access to the existing data.

On 11 February 2019, the OECD organised a webinar to learn and discuss new methodologies on liver models for induction, clearance and toxicity. The speakers presented the benefits compared to existing methods in place, the types of chemicals tested, the results obtained, the transferability and economic aspects for routine testing, and any known limitation to the technologies and their applications.

Latest releases: AOPs are the central element of a toxicological knowledge framework, promoted by member countries through OECD, built to support chemical risk assessment based on mechanistic reasoning. Seven New AOPs have now been published.

On Thursday 26 September 2019, the OECD discussed "Finding Alternatives to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances of Concern: A Difficult and Continuing Challenge" with the participation of W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. Presenters shared efforts, successes and challenges in eliminating per and polyfluorinated chemicals of environmental concern from the life cycle of consumer products.

On 27 September 2019, Anne Gourmelon of the Environment Directorate presented an overview of the various alternative test methods developed as OECD Test Guidelines and relevant guidance material to address eye irritation and serious eye damage for hazard classification of chemicals.

CEOs and corporate leaders on the lessons they have already learnt — and what happens next

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

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

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

Three recent decisions have brought this issue into focus – and all three are lamentable and incoherent

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

This is about reminding ourselves that we are animals, not adjuncts to computer terminals

Too many poets have turned inward, speaking to their fellows rather than to the wider world

Mussorgsky and Toulouse-Lautrec reached out to people treated as extras rather than full human subjects

Have we gone from protecting nature to managing it on behalf of the Earth’s dominant species?

‘There is a unique beauty to this time of year. Everything looks ghostly in the dense, opaque air’

Feelings of shame, unlike other emotions, are difficult to hide

The extraordinary thing about Roger Federer is that he still loves playing tennis after all these years

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

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

As I approached the hall where the relics of our vintage were assembled, I heard an unspirit-like roar

A country’s values come into focus when seen by an outsider, contrasting them with his native country

Caricaturist James Gillray was arrested over a print showing politicians kissing a new royal baby’s backside

Participation in the arts has a hugely positive impact on people’s health and wellbeing

Perhaps a lot of rugby has always been prosaic but I struggle to recall such a dearth of poetry

The quiet streets have that special Viennese quality of grandeur combined with melancholy and nostalgia

Isis could be seen as a vast and terrifying collective outbreak of the Freudian concept of ‘acting out’

Through this column, connections have been made and the conversation has broadened

After 11 years, Harry Eyres’ column has come to an end. Here’s his first, from January 17, 2004

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

The president will be blamed for problem arising from leniency at the border

People do not want sweeping immigration reform. They want less immigration

The dividing line between beach and mountain people seems to involve their need for company

A website’s faults do not absolve it from dealing fairly with users

The Ecclestone case illustrates that power is migrating away from votes and towards money

Uncivil rantings are not as uninformed as one might assume

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