The OECD Environmental Risk Assessment Toolkit describes the work flow for environmental risk assessment and management of chemicals with links to available OECD material relevant for the different steps in risk assessment and management. This new version of the Toolkit is more interactive and has added functionalities. It will be populated with additional tools and case studies in the future.

This document presents the outcomes of the 3rd OECD Biopesticide Seminar, held in 2011, that focused on the topic of “botanicals” (also known as plant extracts). The Seminar reviewed a number of scientific and regulatory issues related to the “characterisation and analyses of botanicals for the use in plant protection products”.

30/01/2013 –The first update to the third generation of the QSAR Toolbox (version 3.1) has now been released containing improved search functionalities, interface improvement, a new database for observed rat in vivo metabolism; updated auto oxidation and metabolism simulators; updated DNA binding profiler and additional ways of expressing mixtures composition.

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 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.

This Bio-pesticides seminar report presents an overview of similarities and differences between species and strains within the Trichoderma genus. This fungus illustrates many general issues related to the use of micro-organisms for 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 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 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 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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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 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.

Policy instruments can be applied to improve the sustainability of plastics, including regulations, market-based instruments, information and voluntary tools. The report reviews the use of these instruments, provides good practice examples, such as product taxes and charges, eco-design standards, extended producer responsibility and environmental product labels, as well as discussing opportunities for their future applications.

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.

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.

A major fruit crop of temperate regions, APPLE is consumed worldwide as fresh fruit, juice and other food products. This consensus document provides science-based key insights for the regulatory assessment of the environmental safety of genetically-engineered products: taxonomy, reproductive biology, genetics, hybridisation and introgression, and ecology.

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’

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

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

The sports marketing and agency boss explains why the City of Angels is ready to play host

The son of a towering industry figure is building his own empire

The leader is a rare example of a foreigner running a German multinational

Avoid eating too much and say yes to that extra glass of wine before you go to sleep in flight