Japan: Updated List of Substances Considered as Priority Assessment Chemicals
Date: 26 April 2023
As part of the systematic risk assessment process for all chemical substances in Japan, the inventory of notified chemical substances is clustered into 2 groups:
- general chemicals (substances having a low risk) and
- all other substances, called priority assessment chemicals (PAC), for which the ‘low risk’ conclusion can’t be made and which will be evaluated further in-depth.
PAC substances are the entry group level for the tiered primary assessment and secondary assessment process.
In this context, the recently published METI report with the updated PAC list (April 1, 2023) is of high interest for the concerned manufacturers and downstream users.
Substances to be discussed for evaluation in FY2023 are:
＃17 Tetramethylammonium hydroxide (human health)
＃86 α-(Nonylphenyl)-ω-hydroxypoly(oxyethylene) (also known as poly(oxyethylene)=nonylphenyl ether, NPE) (ecology, reconsideration)
＃153 N – [3-(dimethylamino)propyl] stearamide (ecology, reconsideration)
＃174 [(3-alkanamido (C=8,10,12,14,16,18, linear) propyl](dimethyl) ammonio]acetate or (Z )-{[3-(octadeca-9-enamido) propyl](dimethyl) ammonio}acetate (ecology)
Substances to be discussed for evaluation in FY2024 are:
＃42 Bis(N , N -dimethyldithiocarbamate)N,N’-ethylenebis(thiocarbamoylthiozinc) (also known as polycarbamate) (Ecology, reconsideration)
＃166 Salt of hexadecyl (trimethyl) ammonium (ecology)
＃167 Salt of didecyl (dimethyl) ammonium (ecology)
JCIA will have an opportunity to express its opinion on behalf of the industry on the draft risk assessment report for the above substances at the council [of ministries].
The draft risk assessment report will be available about one week prior to the council, so it will be confirmed in a short period of time.