NEWS

21.09.11
OECD moves closer to metals specific approach to hazard assessment

The metals industry moved one step closer to developing global guidance for hazard assessment at a successful OECD workshop held in Paris this month.

OECD countries, including the US, Canada and Japan, agreed to develop formal guidelines that outline a metals specific approach for assessing health and environmental hazards.

The decision has significant implications for the mining industry because in many parts of the world environmental quality standards are set using scientific concepts that are not readily applicable to metals.

Site level permitting may be unduly restricted as it leads to standards that are overly conservative for metals.

Regulation has already been set at the EU level – through the REACH legislation – which is largely based on the ICMM-Eurometaux document Metals Environmental Risk Assessment Guidance (MERAG).

REACH has generated high-quality data that experts believe could be used to set more relevant standards for metals globally.

The next phase of the collaboration with OECD will see commodity associations submit metal datasets for screening and formal acceptance by OECD member states.

Industry representatives will meet again in early 2012 at an OECD workshop to discuss the next steps and timeline for data sharing between 2012 and 2014.

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