OECD guidelines for the testing of chemicals now available free of charge

The OECD Guidelines for the Testing of Chemicals - key tools for governments and industry worldwide to assess the safety of chemical products - are now available free of charge on the OECD public website at www.oecd.org/env/testguidelines.

The Test Guidelines are central to the Mutual Acceptance of Data (MAD), OECD's long established system for protecting human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals. Under MAD, all OECD members and several non-member countries that have signed up to it must accept test data developed in other countries using OECD Test Guidelines and following OECD Good Laboratory Practice principles.

This minimises non-tariff barriers to trade and avoids duplicative testing, saving governments and industry an estimated Euro 60m annually.

Free and wider dissemination of the Test Guidelines is a major OECD contribution to the implementation of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), adopted in 2006 by Ministers at the International Conference on Chemicals Management. The SAICM calls for instruments needed for chemicals management to be globally available at no cost.

The development and updating of OECD Test Guidelines rely on expertise available in the 30 member countries and in other countries that are part of MAD. Inputs from a large number of experts from governments and stakeholders guarantee the scientific quality of the Test Guidelines. The OECD has adopted 116 Test Guidelines since 1981 and are these used worldwide.