[in Japanese]

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Until recently it has been generally considered that genotoxic carcinogens have no threshold in exerting their potential for cancer induction. However, the non-threshold theory can be challenged with regard to assessment of cancer risk to humans. In the present study we show that food-related genotoxic hepatocarcinogens, heterocyclic amines and N-nitroso compounds at low doses do not induce preneoplastic lesions and cancer-related markers in rat medium-term carcinogenicity bioassay. The results imply existence of a threshold, at least practical one, for carcinogenicity of genotoxic carcinogens.

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It's an emergency subject to construct the social infrastructure concerning implementation of the GHS (Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals) until it's enforced to 2006 in Japan. The operation of the GHS classification about "Health and Environment Hazards" was tried for some chemicals based on their evaluation documents and MSDSs. After the classification and an analysis of the result, it was found that there were some difficulties to perform the GHS classification for these chemicals.
The cause of the difficulty was discussed and the way to solve the problem was proposed.

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In order to improve the accuracy of Initial Risk Assessment of chemical substances, it is essential to establish a method using PRTR data for predicting the maximum chemical concentration in rivers. By using two river models, a method has been developed to estimate the maximum chemical concentration which can be applied to rivers all over the country with good accuracy.
The new method has been verified by examining the relationship between estimated values and measurement values, and confirmed as an applicable method for Initial Risk Assessment.

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The 14^th SIDS, the Screening Information Data Set, Initial Assessment Meeting (SIAM 14) was held at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris, France, hosted by the European Commission. The initial assessment documents of eight substances at SIAM 14 (CAS numbers: 88197, 126987, 839907, 2403885, 2867472, 3319311, 3452979, 16219753) were submitted by the Japanese Government with or without the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) and all of them were agreed at the meeting. In this report, the human health effect parts in their eight substance documents are introduced.

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On societal implications of nanotechnology, or health, environmental, ethical, and societal issues of nanotechnology, the activities of the USA and Europe and international discussions are introduced. In the USA, the government institutes responsible for health and safety work in an organized way under the control of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). In Europe, they have both EU programs such as NANOSAFE and programs coordinated by each country such as the report of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering. In international discussions, although there are neither actual risks pointed out nor enough systematic experimental data and knowledge, agreements on basic issues on risk assessments such as the definition of the terminology are being obtained and accumulated.

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Concepts in the "Integrated Product Policy (IPP)" published in 2001 from EU commission appears to be steadily getting into practice through legislation like RoHS, Eup, REACH, as well as expanding worldwide as seen in SB20 in California, WEEP in China, and Japanese new product policy. This article discusses the global trend of IPP in terms of Chemical Product Policy (CPP) focusing on the necessity of overcoming supply chain problem. The discussion also includes recent movement of MDs in global standardization procedures, which will be a key technology to solve the issue; information sharing along the supply chains. The suggestion for Japanese enterprises is also provided based on the global optimum principle while many observed existing approaches are still too much shortsighted.

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These days, Integrated Management of Chemicals gets position as Social Responsibility, and voluntary action is becoming much more important for every sectors of society. For the purpose of society's improvement in Integrated Management of Chemicals, we study the index which can evaluate advancement of integrated management of chemicals, and we have developed basic system for the index. The system consists of Science-axis, Capacity-axis and Performance-axis. According to these axes, we tried to evaluate the activity of companies, and tried to analyze the social background.
As a result, we found out problems our society should solve. This trial confirmed that these axes were valid as basic system for the index. In addition, this study suggests a direction which Integrated Management of Chemicals should take.

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Series of lectures on "Reorientation in Chemical & Biological Risk Management" has begun. Its purpose is to supply opportunities to the participants to further prosecute studies on risk evaluation and management of chemical substances and organisms, and on technological innovation and its relations with the society and life in general. With nearly 100 lecturers from various cooperative institutions such as professional organizations, scientific societies, NGO, NPO, mass media, enterprises, and the administration, 15 subjects were created and sat by almost 5,000 participants centering on the members of the society. With further addition of the consumer associations and the local self-governing bodies to the cooperative circle, 51 subjects are scheduled to open in the fiscal year of 2005.
Industry and economy cannot surpass the standard of education in its nation. Refinement of knowledge on activities of industry and enterprises that support the modern society, and on trends in science and technology is a genuine education essential to the 21st century. In order to enhance this standard of education, it is indispensable for the professionals to carry out a mutual learn-and-teach attitude. Socio-academic collaboration beyond business-academic collaboration is gravely important.
This extension course is part of our challenge to create a "Market of Intellect" where genuine education of the 21st century can be nourished under the banner of "Mutual Learn & Teach" and "Socio-Academic Collaboration."

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Through a 1990 OECD Council Decision Member countries decided to undertake the investigation of high production volume (HPV) chemicals in a co-operative way. These HPV chemicals include all chemicals reported to be produced or imported at levels greater than 1,000 tonnes per year in at least one Member country or in the European Union region. The overall objective of the HPV Chemicals Programme is to co-operatively undertake an initial assessment of HPV chemicals to screen them and agree on the need for further work. Member countries co-operatively investigate HPV chemicals in order to identify those which are potentially hazardous to the environment and/or to the health of the general public or workers.
From 1998, OECD work on HPV/SIDS program has been accelerated by the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) HPV Initiative.
The authors built the international collaborative alliance for sharing the work to participate in the work for OECD HPV/SIDS program toward SIAM17, 2003. Ihara Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., the lead company, Clariant GmbH (Germany) and Tessenderlo Chemie NV/SA (Belgium) took part in this consortium to share the burden and CERI, Chemicals Evaluation and Research Institute, Japan supported them to make the assessment documents. Our target chemical is 1-chloro-2-(chloromethyl) benzene (o-chlorobenzyl chloride; OCBC). OCBC is used only as intermediate for the production of agrochemicals. Annual production volume of OCBC in Japan has been decreasing to a few hundred tones recently, production in Belgium and Germany was in the same range. As a consequence of our investigation, however, it was evident that OCBC possesses properties indicating a hazard for human health and the environment. And, We collected information regarding the exposure in OCBC manufacturing plants and paid attention to describe about the point clearly in relation to the hazardous profile of OCBC.
The draft SIDS documents have been forwarded to the ICCA committee for further comments. Stakeholders from many countries requested additional information on intrinsic properties and exposure situation. The consortium discussed hazard and exposure assessment and formulated a final set of documents which have been presented by the sponsor country at SIAM17. And, it was concluded from existing data that "OCBC possesses properties indicating a hazard for human health and the environment. Based on data presented by the Sponsor country, exposure to humans and the environment is anticipated to be low, and therefore OCBC is currently of low priority for further work. Countries may desire to investigate any exposure scenarios that were not presented by Sponsor countries."

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