Development and assessment of new risk assessment methods

Title of Research:
12_PT01-02-2

Development of a user-friendly risk assessment tool for voluntary environmental risk
assessment and management by business operators
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:
1) Masashi Kamo (Research Institute of Science for Safety and Sustainability, National Instituteof Advanced Industrial Science and Technology). 16-1 Onogawa Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki,305-8569 Japan. (tel) +81-29861 8029, (e-mail) masashi-kamo@aist.go.jp;
2) Wataru Naito (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 8299, (e-mail) w-naito@aist.go.jp
Summary of Research:
Risk assessment and management of chemicals have become increasingly cumbersome due toreinforcements and revisions of national/international laws and regulations. For this reason, there
is an urgent need for the implementation of accurate and simple risk assessment andmanagement of chemicals. In order to address this need, we have focused on the improvement
and enhancement of the Japanese version of the risk assessment tool, AIST-MeRAM 0.9.12(released in Jul., 2013) during this project term, and eventually released its updated version,“AIST-MeRAM 1.0.1” in Dec., 2014 as a research outcome (Figure 1). At the same time, we havebeen also engaged in the development of the English version of the tool to promote international
business operations of the Japanese chemical industry and its strategies for Asia, as well as tosupport the dissemination of risk assessment scheme described in Chemical Substances Control
Law of Japan in Asian countries. The English version, “AIST-MeRAM 1.0.0”, was also released inDec., 2014 (Figure 1) as scheduled. In addition to these achievements, we have developed
AIST-MeRAM web pages to encourage the use of these tools, lectured at the chemical risk forum
hosted by Japan Chemical Industry Association, and conducted dissemination activities inThailand, Vietnam, etc.

Development and assessment of new risk assessment methods

Timeline:
From November, 2013 to February, 2015
Topics:None
Publications:1) (Presentation at domestic meeting) The 26th Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis
Japan (Nov. 15-17, 2013), Chuo Univ., Korakuen Campus, “Development of a social
need-oriented tool for ecological risk assessment and management, AIST-MeRAM”.
2) (Invited speech at domestic workshop) NIAES 30th Anniversary Workshop: the 4th
Agro-environmental Inventory Workshop, “Establishment of inventories for the efficient risk
assessment of chemical substances, including pesticides”. Feb. 27, 2014, Tsukuba
International Congress Center (Epochal Tsukuba)
3) (Paper publication) Journal of Japan Society for Safety Engineering vol.53 No.2, 82-88, 2014,“Development of models for ecological risk assessment of chemicals and support practical useof the models in society”.
4) (Presentation at international meeting) 2014 ISEH, 2014/7/1-6, Beijing China, “AIST-MeRAM:
an easy-to-use tool for aquatic environmental risk assessment and management ofchemicals”.
5) (Presentation at international meeting) SETAC North America 35th Annual Meeting,2014/11/9-13, Vancouver Canada, “AIST-MeRAM: an easy-to-use tool for aquaticenvironmental risk assessment and management of chemicals”.
6) (Research outcome exhibition) AIST Techno-bridge Salon, Oct. 23-24, 2014, Tsukuba,“AIST-MeRAM: a tool for facilitating increasingly cumbersome tasks of risk assessment in thecontext of regulatory reinforcements”.
7) (Invited speech at domestic forum) Chemical risk forum organized by Japan Chemical Industry
Association, Jan. 30, 2015, Tokyo, “AIST-MeRAM, an all-in-one ecological risk assessment
tool for complying the risk assessment procedures defined in Chemical Substance ControlLaw”.