Health impacts of chemicals
The health impact of chemicals is determined by a process of assessment which aims to provide a consensus scientific description of the risks of chemical exposures. These descriptions are published in assessment reports and other related documents so that governments and international and national organizations can use them as the basis for taking preventive actions against adverse health and environmental impacts. For example the documents are often used as the basis for establishing guidelines and standards for the use of chemicals and for standards for drinking water and can assist with the implementation of international agreements such as the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (the GHS)
IPCS works cooperatively with other international organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), under the auspices of the Inter-Organizational Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals avoiding duplication and thereby optimizing the use of assessment resources.
Key areas
Assessments series publications
Concise International Chemical Assessment (CICAD)
These documents are providing internationally accepted reviews on the effects on human health and the environment of chemicals or combinations of chemicals. They aim to characterize the hazard and dose-response of exposure to chemicals and to provide examples of exposure estimation and risk characterizations for application at the national or local level.
They summarize the information considered critical for risk characterization in sufficient detail to allow independent assessment , but are concise not repeating all the information available on a particular chemical.
The majority of these documents are available in HTML format on the IPCS INCHEM web site.
Environmental Health Criteria (EHC)
Environmental Health Criteria (EHC) documents provide international, critical reviews on the effects of chemicals or combinations of chemicals and physical and biological agents on human health and the environment.
Health and Safety Guides (HSG)
Health and Safety Guides provide concise information in non-technical language, for decision-makers on risks from exposure to chemicals, together with practical advice on medical and administrative issues.
Publications
This is an addendum to the WHO publication “The Public Health Impact of Chemicals: Knowns and Unknowns” (WHO, 2016) and presents...
This is an addendum to the WHO publication “The Public Health Impact of Chemicals: Knowns and Unknowns” (WHO, 2016) and presents an update...
The 2021 data addendum estimates that 2 million lives and 53 million disability-adjusted life-years were lost in 2019 due to exposures to selected chemicals....