Bioconcentration Prediction under the Amended Chemical Substances Control Law of Japan

At the International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in February 2006, the “Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM)” was adopted, and over one hundred countries around the world reached agreement to “minimize significant adverse effects from production and use of chemicals on human health and the environment by 2020.” At the same time as the above policy was agreed upon, the International Council of Chemical Associations consisting of chemical industries from 52 countries announced Global Product Strategy (GPS), which is designed to improve a global chemical substances management and to support the SAICM with a voluntary industry action. Thus, the importance of ensuring safety of chemicals is increasing.Under these circumstances, Sumitomo Chemical has been proactively taking voluntary responsible care and maintaining our compliance to laws and regulations pertaining to chemicals. In the SAICM, the persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substances (PBT-substances) or persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are considered to be in high priority in risk management. The chemicals possessing these properties are also under the control of many other regulations, such as the Stockholm Treaty. Therefore, safety measures to prohibit the manufacture/usage, to reduce discharge and to treat appropriately the aforementioned chemicals are required with international cooperation. In Japan, chemicals that possess these properties have been already strictly controlled under the Chemical Substances Control Law of Japan. Although the Chemical Substances Control Law of Japan was greatly amended in 2004, evaluation of the chemical properties such as biodegradable and bioaccumulative potential relating to PBT-substances or POPs have been consecutively stipulated as an absolute requirement since its enactment in 1974. In particular, chemicals having high bioaccumulative potential are strictly controlled under the law. With respect to bioaccumulative potential evaluation, the bioconcentration test of chemicals have been partially exempted and displaced by prediction methods, for example using the logarithm of the 1-octanol/water partition coefficient as a descriptor, with compiling actual measured test data in consideration of cost-saving measures. In this paper, we summarize the prediction methods for bioaccumulative potential that are permitted under Bioconcentration Prediction under the Amended Chemical Substances Control Law of Japan