Regulatory assessment of chemicals within OECD member countries, EU and in Russia.

The chemical risk assessment is essesntial part of new chemical legislation registration, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals (REACH). The article presents a review of chemical legislation policies in the European Union (EU) and in Russia, and changes in chemicals regulations to meet the requirement of REACH. The risk assessment paradigm, toxicological parameters, safe limits and classification criteria used by different agencies and authorities in different countries are reported. Our investigation also focuses on comparison of chemical risk assessment criteria used in OECD member countries and in Russia. Tendencies in harmonization in accordance with the globally harmonized system of classification and labeling of chemicals (GHS) are discussed.