Choose from 5 options:
Step 4.5 Outcome - your human health risk for categorisation
The table on this page shows how you can work out your indicative human health risk by using your human health exposure band and the human health hazard characteristics that your chemical does or does not have.
Get help with this step — explore our categorisation decision tools
We explain the table in detail for each human health exposure band that your introduction could be in. This includes what your indicative human health risk outcome will be, depending on which hazard characteristics your chemical does or does not have. Your outcome will be that your introduction has an indicative human health risk of:
- medium to high
- low OR
- very low
Refer back to step 4.4 for information about how to consider the hazard characteristics and where to start and stop when considering hazard characteristics.
Human health risk table
| Work out your indicative human health risk | Human health exposure band | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Human health hazard band | C | Low risk | Medium to high risk | Medium to high risk | Medium to high risk |
| B | Very low risk | Very low risk | Low risk | Medium to high risk | |
| A | Very low risk | Very low risk | Low risk | Low risk | |
| Not C, B, A | Very low risk | Very low risk | Very low risk | Very low risk | |
If your introduction is in human health exposure band 1
If your introduction is in human health exposure band 1, you will need to consider if your chemical has any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C. It’s not necessary to consider the hazard characteristics in band B or A.
The indicative human health risk of your introduction will be:
- low if your chemical has 1 or more of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C or
- very low if your chemical does not have any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C
If your introduction is in human health exposure band 2
If your introduction is in human health exposure band 2, you will need to consider if your chemical has any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C. It’s not necessary to consider the hazard characteristics in band B or A.
The indicative human health risk of your introduction will be:
- medium to high if your chemical has 1 or more of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C OR
- very low if your chemical does not have any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C
If your introduction is in human health exposure band 3
If your introduction is in human health exposure band 3, at a minimum, you will need to consider if your chemical has any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C.
The indicative human health risk of your introduction will be:
- medium to high if your chemical has 1 or more of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C OR
- low if your chemical does not have any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C
You can choose to stop if you get to low indicative human health risk.
If you want to see if your introduction could have a very low indicative human health risk, you will also need to consider if it has any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard bands B and A.
The indicative human health risk of your introduction will be:
- low if your chemical has 1 or more of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band B or A or
- very low if your chemical does not have any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band B or A
If your introduction is in human health exposure band 4
If your introduction is in human health exposure band 4, you will first need to consider if your chemical has any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C. If it does not, then continue on to consider the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band B.
The indicative human health risk of your introduction will be:
- medium to high if your chemical has 1 or more of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C or B or
- low if your chemical does not have any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band C or B
You can choose to stop if you get to low indicative human health risk.
If you want to see if your introduction could have a very low indicative human health risk, you will also need to consider if it has any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band A.
The indicative human health risk of your introduction will be:
- low if your chemical has 1 or more of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band A or
- very low if your chemical does not have any of the hazard characteristics in human health hazard band A
'Special cases' — introductions that cannot have a very low indicative human health risk
Your introduction cannot have a very low indicative human health risk if it is a:
- UV filter or
- chemical that is introduced as a solid or a dispersion that is not soluble, that meets the nanoscale particle size criteria, and the introduction of the nanoscale portion of the chemical (the part that has a particle size range of 1 nm to 100 nm) is incidental to the introduction of the non-nanoscale portion or
- chemical that is introduced as a solid or a dispersion where there is no information available on its water solubility or its particle size, and the introduction of any nanoscale portion of the chemical (the part that has a particle size range of 1 nm to 100 nm) is incidental to the introduction of the non-nanoscale portion.
If your introduction is 1 of these, and you got a very low risk outcome in this step, you need to change that outcome to low risk.
This means if your consideration of step 4.5 got you to an outcome of very low risk, your final outcome needs to be changed to low risk.
Definitions of these 'special cases'
A UV filter is a chemical that is intended to protect the skin against ultraviolet radiation in the range of 290 nm to 400 nm by absorption, reflection, or scattering of ultraviolet radiation.
Nanoscale particle size criteria means that the chemical consists of solid particles in an unbound state or as an aggregate or agglomerate. At least 50% (by number size distribution) of the particles must have at least 1 external dimension in the particle size range of 1nm to 100nm (i.e. the nanoscale).
Not soluble means the solubility of the chemical in water is less than 33.3 g/L measured following an acceptable test guideline for water solubility; or the dissolution rate of the chemical is not more than 70%.
Next
Go to step 5 to work out the risk to the environment of your introduction