Development and assessment of new risk assessment methods
Title of Research:

12_PT01-02

Development of a user-friendly risk assessment tool forvoluntary environmental risk assessment and management
Principal Investigator:
Bin-Le Lin (Research Institute of Science for Safety and Sustainability, National Institute ofAdvanced Industrial Science and Technology). 16-1 Onogawa Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki, 305-8569
Japan. (tel) +81-29861 8844, (e-mail) binle-lin@aist.go.jp
Collaborators:
Masashi Kamo (ditto). (tel) +81-29861 8029, (e-mail) masashi-kamo@aist.go.jp; Wataru Naito(ditto). (tel) +81-29861 8299, (e-mail) w-naito@aist.go.jp

Generalized Refined assessment
 All functions available

Assessment
Functions

Risk Assessment
 Probabilistic assessment
 Deterministic assessment
 Automatic determinationof UF Screening assessment
 Simplified GUI

SelectHazard Assessment
 Population –level effectassessment
 SSD
 No-effect concentration
for population –level
impact Screening under CSCL

BatchAssessment
 CSCL-compliant
assessment
 Routine-task orientedGUIExposure Assessment
 Tier 1 of risk
assessment 1 underCSCL
 Exposure
concentration
distribution of化学物質の濃度

Example of Hazard
Assessment

Example of Exposure
Assessment

Specialized

Capable of conducting assessment
according to the purpose, scenario
and level of detail for chemicalmanagement

Example of Risk Assessment
ResultOutputPhysical property
data
Ecotoxicity study
data

Emission factors
Environmental
parameters

頻度

InitialAssessment

SimpleImage of Risk Assessment

Risk Management
 Relative comparison ofrisks
 Present checkpoints

環境濃度分布

Detailed
Assessment

Assessment Result

確率密度

RefinedBasic system

種の影響割合Assessment Mode

暴露濃度

個体群影響閾値濃度

For the realization of the WSSD 2020 goal, this tool supports the “acceleration/routinization of assessment” and“practical use/standardization of assessment models”.

Figure 1. Features and Functions of AIST-MeRAM
Summary of Research:
In the midst of the growing social needs for environmental risk assessment to address newnational/international regulations, this study has been promoting the development of theMulti-purpose Ecological Risk Assessment and Management Tool (AIST-MeRAM) that allows
business operators to select an assessment model on their own, and to perform a variety ofassessments easily and efficiently in order to meet their purpose.(Fig.1)
During the first term of New LRI, we made some improvements to the algorithm and interface,based on the hearings from the industry and government, and undertook the development of astandalone application. As a result, we released the standalone version of AIST-MeRAM(Japanese version: 0.9.12) that contains large amounts of toxicity data and is capable ofconducting many different types of ecological risk assessments as well as Kashinhou-compliant
screening assessment.
Annual Report 20136

Development and assessment of new risk assessment methods

Timeline: November 1, 2012 –Publications:1) Newspaper coverage: “’New LRI’: JCIA started taking actions. 130,000 ecotoxicity data”,
The Chemical Daily, 26 February 2013, p.10 (section of environment).
2) Newspaper coverage: “Development of a user-friendly tool for ecological risk assessment”,
Business Line, 26 April 2013, p.27.
3) Newspaper coverage: “AIST’s green innovation for future sustainable society: Ecological risk
assessment and management of chemicals – AIST-MeRAM”, Business Line, 25 July 2013,
p.30.
4) AIST-RISS Newsletter No.18. “AIST-MeRAM: Industry-academia-government needs
adaptive tool for ecological risk assessment and management”.
5) Lin, Naito and Kamo (October 2013) AIST OpenLab 2013: “AIST-MeRAM: Tool for
dissemination, optimization and standardization of ecological risk assessment of chemicals.
6) Lin, Hirata, Naito, Kamo (June 2013). “AIST-MeRAM: an easy-to-use tool for aquatic
environmental risk assessment and management of chemicals”, Water and Environment
Technology Conference, June 15-16 2013, Kaganei Campus TUAT.
nd7) Lin, Kamo and Naito (August 2013). Lecture and poster presentation at the 2 Annual
Meeting of New LRI. “AIST-MeRAM: Development of an industry needs adaptive tool for risk
assessment and management”.

Annual Report 20137