Step 3: Is there new human health 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 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 submitted to the overseas body. This is the information that the overseas body based their assessment on. 

If no new human health 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 human health.

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 human health and it was not mentioned in the overseas report – you do not meet our criteria for an introduction that has been internationally assessed for human health.
• If the new information shows that the chemical has a hazard to human health 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 human health.
• If the information shows that the chemical has a hazard to human health 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 human health.

Example

An overseas assessment completed in 2011 shows that your chemical has the hazard characteristic ‘acute toxicity (harmful)’, based on an acute oral toxicity study. You also have an acute oral toxicity study that was not available in 2011. This study indicates that the chemical has the hazard characteristic ‘acute toxicity (fatal or toxic)’. This means that the severity of the acute oral toxicity hazard is higher than that published in the 2011 assessment – and you do not meet our criteria for an introduction that has been internationally assessed for human health.