Invitation to join a stakeholder group  with an interest in worker exposure assessment models under REACH

5th April 2012: ECETOC launches version 3 of the Targeted Risk Assessment (TRA) Tool

The new version 3 of the Targeted Risk Assessment (TRA) Tool is now available together with updated user guides. Version 3 of the TRA is available in two forms: as an integrated exposure/risk assessment tool covering worker, consumer and environmental exposures; and as a standalone consumer exposure estimation tool.  It is not ECETOC’s intention to support a standalone worker version 3 of the tool.  A supplement to ECETOC Technical Reports 93 and 107 will also shortly be published (as TR 114) and will detail the full technical basis for version 3.

Introduction

The ECETOC Targeted Risk Assessment (TRA) tool was launched in 2004. The TRA consists of 3 separate models for estimating exposures to workers, consumers and the environment that arise during a series of events (’exposure scenarios’).  In order to ensure that the TRA fully aligned with the expectations contained in Chapters R12-R16 of the Technical Guidance on Information Requirements and Chemicals Safety Assessment (IR&CSA), ECETOC released version2 of the TRA in 2009. The general success of the TRA concept is witnessed that by the end of 2011, over 10,000 downloads of the version2 of the TRA have been made.

Following the completion of Phase 1 of REACH in December 2010, ECETOC approached users of the TRA to seek their ideas for how the TRA might be further improved. The aim of this exercise was to ensure that key learnings arising from the use of the TRA in 2009/10 could be captured into an updated version that would be available for use in Phase 2 of REACH. The intention was not to radically overhaul the TRA, rather to further improve its accuracy and flexibility, within its existing framework.

Version 3 of the TRA is available in two forms: as an integrated exposure/risk assessment tool covering worker, consumer and environmental exposures; and as a standalone consumer exposure estimation tool. It is not ECETOC’s intention to support a standalone worker version 3 of the tool. Both forms of the TRA are downloadable from the TRA website, together with their supporting User Guides. A supplement to ECETOC Technical Reports 93 and 107 will also shortly be published and which details the full technical basis for version 3.

ECETOC has been working with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) as part of its work activities associated with the delivery of a revised version of the Chesar Chemical Safety Assessment tool (http://chesar.echa.europa.eu/). The new version of Chesar (planned for release in Summer 2012) is intended to directly reflect version 3 of the TRA for both worker and consumer exposures. Furthermore,  Chesar v2 can also be expected to allow the incorporation of the Specific Environmental Release Categories (SpERCs) that are included as a key element of the environmental component of the TRA v3.

See 'History' for further information on the history of the tool.

Scientific Secretary to the TRA: Environmental-Sciences-Manager Malyka Galay Burgos

Disclaimer:

Please note that the tool is provided for your personal use only. It should not be copied or forwarded to third parties. The tool has been subjected to thorough testing. Despite this, ECETOC does not guarantee that the ECETOC TRA tool works error-free. The tool contains SCEDS and SPERC content, which has been provided by third parties. ECETOC is making this tool available for users to aid them in the risk assessment of their materials. ECETOC offers no warranty either to the reliability of the tool and of the provided information or to the conclusions or assumptions made by any user on the basis of the use of this tool or the use of such information. All usage is at the discretion of the user and ECETOC is not liable for any consequences resulting from such use.