Japan Launches Program for Safety Information on Chemicals

The Japanese government and industry launched a joint program to facilitate gathering and providing information on the safety of existing chemicals, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and the Ministry of the Environment announced on June 1, 2005.

The program, called the "Japan Challenge Program," aims to provide information to the public on existing chemical substances through the Internet and other means. It covers chemicals produced or imported but not subject to preliminary examination under the 1973 Law Concerning the Examination and Regulation of Manufacture, etc. of Chemical Substances.

The target chemicals are mainly organic compounds whose annual domestic production and/or import volumes amount to 1,000 tons or more. Since these chemicals potentially pose a high risk to humans and the environment, they will be given priority when publishing the list of targeted substances. Safety information on these chemicals will be collected by the government and sponsors solicited from the private sector. The government will announce the targeted chemicals in advance so that it can avoid duplication of data collection. Information collection will be completed by the end of fiscal 2008.

Since the 1990s, the safety information on chemicals has been collected through international cooperation, mainly by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Since then, Japan has participated in the activities and contributed to collecting and posting information on about 100 out of around 500 chemicals for which information has been collected to date worldwide. The Japanese government intends to promote this program in concert with the OECD and the U.S. challenge program, and will strive to collect information efficiently without unnecessary overlapping of efforts.

http://www.meti.go.jp/english/information/downloadfiles/JP_HPVprogram.pdf

Posted: 2005/10/08 09:02:45 AM
Japanese version