Step 3: Is there new environment hazard information about the chemical that was not available when it was assessed overseas?

If you have direct access to the complete overseas report, compare the new hazard information available to you with the hazard studies described in the overseas report. 

If you don’t have direct access to the complete overseas report, check the information that was submitted to the overseas body. This is the information that the overseas body based their assessment on. 

If no new environment hazard information about the chemical has become available following the publication of the overseas report, continue to Step 4 to work out if you meet our criteria for an introduction that has been internationally assessed for the environment.

If new hazard information about the chemical has become available following the publication of the overseas report, you must consider the following implications:

• If the new information shows that the chemical has a hazard to the environment and it was not mentioned in the overseas report — you do not meet our criteria for an introduction that has been internationally assessed for the environment.
• If the new information shows that the chemical has a hazard to the environment that is more severe than the hazard characteristic described in the overseas report — you do not meet our criteria for an introduction that has been internationally assessed for the environment.
• If the information shows that the chemical has a hazard to the environment that is less severe, or of the same severity, as the hazard characteristic described in the overseas report — continue to Step 4 to work out if you meet our criteria for an introduction that has been internationally assessed for the environment. 

Example

An overseas assessment completed in 2008 shows that the chemical has the hazard characteristic ‘harmful to aquatic life’, based on an acute aquatic toxicity study in fish. You also have an acute aquatic toxicity study in fish that was not available in 2008. This study indicates that the chemical has the hazard characteristic ‘toxic to aquatic life’. This means that the severity of the acute aquatic toxicity hazard is higher than that published in the 2008 assessment — and you do not meet our criteria for an introduction that has been internationally assessed for the environment.