The chemical safety report documents the chemical safety assessment undertaken as part of the REACH registration process, and is the key source from which the registrant provides information to all users of chemicals through the exposure scenarios. It also forms a basis for other REACH processes including substance evaluation, authorisation and restriction.

The chemical safety assessment is carried out to demonstrate that the risks from the exposure to a substance, during its manufacture and use, are controlled when specific operational conditions and risk management measures are applied. These conditions of use of a substance constitute the exposure scenario, which is an essential component of the chemical safety report.

The chemical safety report should be readily understandable in all its parts as a stand-alone document and it should include all the relevant information for the chemical safety assessment. The principles applied in the hazard and exposure assessments, the assumptions made and the conclusions drawn should be transparent and well documented. The key data should be easily identifiable without the need to revert to the underlying substance datasets (IUCLID substance dataset).

The elements to be included in the chemical safety report are listed in Annex I, section 7 of REACH. 

Exposure scenarios

An exposure scenario is a set of conditions that describe how a substance is manufactured or used, and the measures necessary to control exposure to humans and releases to the environment.

The final exposure scenario defines the operational conditions and risk management measures required to ensure the safe use of the substance for each exposed population during all the lifecycle stages of the substance, including the waste stage and the article service life, where applicable. It is achieved through refinement of the operational conditions and risk management measures until the risks for humans and the environment are shown to be controlled.

The final exposure scenario should be documented in a standardised way to accurately describe the conditions of use to promote adequate and achievable risk management measures. The relevant exposure scenarios will be communicated to downstream users via the extended safety data sheets.

For substances registered at and above ten tonnes per year, which meet the classification criteria, each identified use of a substance should have an exposure scenario that will document all the relevant routes of exposures and releases associated with that use.

Chemical safety report/Exposure scenario roadmap

The CSR/ES Roadmap is a collaborative effort of ECHA and its stakeholders. It sets a joint action plan to improve the generation and communication of exposure scenarios by 2018.

It also aims to improve the clarity and accuracy of the information already provided by registrants in the chemical safety reports.

The Roadmap consists of a number of actions grouped around five main topics. Through the implementation of these actions, stakeholders will exchange ideas and identify good practices that will improve the quality of the information as well as the efficiency of the generation and communication of CSRs and ES. All stakeholders are encouraged to contribute to this joint effort.