Pergsamon Chemosphere, Vol. 34, No. 8. pp. 1823-1836, Science 1997 Ltd 0 1997 Elsevier AU rights -cd. Printed in Grrat Britain PII: zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFED soa4s~35(97)ooo173 0045-6535197 Sl7.OOtO.CK’ EUROPEAN UNION SYSTEM FOR TEE EVALUATION OF SUBSTANCES @USES). PRINCIPLES AND STRUCTURE Vermehe. T.G.‘. Jager,*D.T.‘. Bussian, B.*, Devillexs, J.‘, den Haan K!, Hansen B.s, Lundberg I!, Niessen, H?, Robertson, S.8, Tyle, H.9, van der Zandt, P.T.J.“, ’ National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, RIVM, P.O. Box 1,372O BA Biltboven, The Netherlands ’ Umweltbundesamt, UBA, Berlin, Germany 3 Centre de Traitement de PInformation Scientilique, CTIS, Lyon, France 4 SHELL Research and Technical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 5 European Chemicals Bureau, ECB, Environment Institute, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy 6 Swedish National Chemicals Inspectorate, KEMI, Solna, Sweden ’ European Centre for Ecotoxicology and Toxicology of Chemicals, ECETOC, Brussels, Belgium * Department of the Enviromnent, DOE, London, United Kingdom 9 Danish Environmental Protection Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark lo Ministry of Housing Physical Planning and the Environment, VROM, Directorate-General of Environmental Protection, The Hague, The Netherlands (Received in Germany 9 December 1996; accepted 12 Lkcember 1996) ABSTRACT In the European Union, Directive 92/3uEc and EC Council Regulation (EC) 793193 require the risk assessment of new and existing substances, respectively. Principles for this risk assessment have been laid down, supported by a detailed package of Technical Guidance Documents. Against this background the European Union System for the Evaluation of Substances (EUSES) has been developed. This software can be used to carry out tiered risk assessments of increasing complexity on the basis of increasing data requirements. The exposure assessment, effects assessment and risk characterisation are carried out for environmental populations as well as for human beings, including workers, consumers and man exposed through the environment. EUSES is the result of a co-ordinated effort of EU Member States, the European Commission and the European Chemical Industry. 8 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved 1823