TR 071 – Inventory of Critical Reviews on Chemicals

TR 071 : Inventory of Critical Reviews on Chemicals | August 1996

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), through its International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals (IRPTC), and the European Centre for the Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals (ECETOC), are jointly operating an Inventory of Critical Reviews on Chemicals (ICRC).

The ICRC presents the work of 40 organisations or agencies involved in reviewing or evaluating data pertaining to health or environmental hazards posed by chemicals.  The content of the ICRC depends on the voluntary contribution of these international, governmental and non-governmental organisations, including industry.

The ICRC contains a description of these organisations, an outline of the general content of the series of reviews they produce (including descriptors) and information on the preparation process of these reviews together with their year of publication or their stage of preparation (in preparation or planned).  Forty six series of reviews have been identified as fulfilling the criteria for inclusion in the ICRC as critical reviews.  Six other series of interest have been added.  There are more than 9500 critical reviews recorded in the ICRC.  Contact points, where further information and publications can be obtained, are given at the end of the description of each organisation.

Included in the ICRC are more than 3900 chemicals reviewed or evaluated by one or more organisations.  The chemicals are tabulated in alphabetical order, using their common names (name most frequently reported by contributors to the ICRC).  Cross-reference tables with other reported names and with Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Registry Numbers should facilitate locating chemicals in the main table.

The purpose of the ICRC is to inform both producers and users of critical reviews on the existence of such reviews and about their content, planning and preparation stages. Through this information, the production of risk assessment documents may be better coordinated nationally and internationally, and costly duplication of efforts can be avoided. The ICRC is also useful in establishing international priorities for chemical evaluation.