Risk management

Risk management is a decision making process involving consideration of relevant risk assessment information relating to the hazards and exposures from a chemical and the socio-economic aspects (political, social, economic, and technical factors) so as to develop, analyse and compare regulatory and non-regulatory control options and to select and implement the appropriate regulatory response to that substance. Precaution can be applied in risk management when there are threats of serious or irreversible damage to man or the environment. In this situation the lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent the damage.

Risk management measures can include, for example, labelling of chemicals and mixtures, use of safety data sheets, use of personal protective equipment, emission inventories, emission controls (water or air permits), or bans and restrictions for marketing and use. Other options, either voluntary or regulatory, to anticipate and prevent risks are, for example, additional testing to determine hazard, monitoring (human health or environment), pollution prevention, to reduce the generation of hazardous waste, environmentally sound recovery and recycling, market-based initiatives and/or takes, safer alternatives, informed substitution, cleaner production, chemical leasing, worker safety programs and public awareness campaigns. Further information on labelling of chemicals and mixtures and safety data sheets can be found in the Classification and Labelling System Scheme and further information on emission inventories can be found in the Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) Scheme (use the linkd on the left-hand side of the page, to return to this page use the navigation bar at the top of the page).

Information on the possible use of risk management by government can be viewed under More information.

Risk management measures can be applied to:

• Chemicals with unknown properties, e.g. by implementing general exposure minimisation measures;
• Priority chemicals, e.g. by implementing risk reduction measures depending on the hazard profile and the intended uses; and
• High priority chemicals, e.g. through bans or restriction for marketing and use.

Risk management contains three sub elements:

1. Risk evaluation, socio-economic analysis and risk communication

2. Exposure control

3. Risk monitoring

The resources required for risk management will depend on the numbers of chemicals included in the hazard assessment and risk assessment elements of the scheme, so the same level as for risk assessment should be selected on the left.