[Safety information project on drug, food and chemicals. Division of Safety Information on Drug, Food and Chemicals. National Institute of Health Sciences].

Recent issues on BSE(Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) and health hazards caused by adverse reactions of medical drugs, have strongly emphasized the necessity for safety measures to secure public health. These issues have been attributed to the delay to obtain overseas information on safety and regulation, and the lack of an adequate system for acquirement and assessment of such information. In order to develop a system where domestic and international safety information is collected, analyzed, assessed and presented both scientifically and systematically, the Division of Chem-Bio Informatics of the National Institute of Health Sciences was reorganized to the Division of Safety Information on Drug, Food and Chemicals in April, 2003. Collection and evaluation of safety information on medical drugs, food and chemical substances is now centralized at the Division, which consists of 5 sections, the first, second and third sections being newly established. The first section assesses information on medical drugs, the second section deals with food microorganisms, and the third section focuses on chemicals in food. The fourth and fifth sections retain their previous functions, namely, chemical safety information research and information network infrastructure support within the institute, respectively. The purpose of this paper is to describe how we will manage safety information on drug, food and chemicals, focusing on the role of the three new sections.