Environmental Engineering Reference
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Figure 2.1 World chemicals sales distribution, based on CEFIC data (2011 and 2012). Note: NAFTA is
the NorthAmerican FreeTradeAgreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States.
CEFIC, 2012) about the distribution (in %) of chemicals production in 2010 and
2011 compared to 2000 and 2001. World production almost doubled in absolute
value, while both European and American contribution decreased by 10%, Japanese
by 4%. Chinese production increased from 8.1 to 26.8% (Figure 2.1).
High production volume (HPV) chemicals are those produced or imported in vol-
umes greater than 1,000 tons. Approximately 5%, i.e., 3,000-5,000 substances are
HPV chemicals, which dominate world production. As chemicals are traded interna-
tionally, chemical safety is a global concern and has inspired a number of international
initiatives.
The historical US EPA HPV database contains detailed information on 900 HPV
chemicals from 1990 and 1994 (EPA HPV, 2013).The Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2013) has initiated a co-operative action pro-
gram for testing and assessing HPV chemicals in a systematic way. OECD identified
data gaps, recommended further investigations and risk assessment of several HPV
chemicals and created a list of 5,235 HPV chemicals in 2004 (OECD, 2004).
In 2006 UNEP adopted a Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Manage-
ment (SAICM, 2013). It supports the achievement of the goal agreed at the 2002
Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg Summit,
2013) of ensuring that, by the year 2020, chemicals are produced and used in ways
that minimize significant adverse impacts on the environment and human health.
ESIS, the European Chemical Substances Information System (ESIS, 2013),
contains a searchable database of 2872 HPV chemicals as of August 2013.
The database eChemPortal, an integrating database (eChemPortal, 2013) serves
today as the global portal to information on chemical substances. Twenty-six data
sources—including OECD, EPA, ESIS—participate under Chemical Substance Search
within eChemPortal (Substance search eChemPortal, 2013).
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