Bio: As the Director, she manages the Center which is responsible for the licensing, registration and post-market surveillance of cosmetics, toys and childcare articles, household urban hazardous substances/pesticides and licensing of pest control operators. She is currently an honorary fellow of the Philippine Society of Clinical and Occupational Toxicology (PSCOT), the Chairperson of the ASEAN Cosmetic Scientific Body (ACSB), Head of the Philippine delegation to the ASEAN Cosmetic Committee, observer in the GHS UNECE meetings and the representative to the WHO Chemical Risk Assessment Network (CRAN) as well as in participating in the discussions on various aspects on chemical safety with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), APEC Chemicals Dialogue (CD), AMEICC Working Group for the Chemical Industry, WHO-FCTC, the WHO – Global Tobacco Regulatory Forum and in the local fora.

Abstract: Chemicals are an essential part of our daily lives. In the context of globalization and free trade, safe use and handling of chemicals is increasingly perceived as a challenge for many countries specially for those whose economies are in transition. Prioritization is the initial step in the process of evaluating new and existing chemicals in most regulatory agencies. This paper discusses a prioritization scheme that may be used based on a quantitative scoring system to designate a chemical substance as either high priority for further risk evaluation or low priority for which no further regulatory action is necessary. The proposed system needs to identify the hazards both for human and environment using a scoring matrix; the final score is then used to determine the priority of the substance considering that there are more than tens of thousands chemicals that are available in the market. Selected high priority chemicals will further undergo a risk assessment or both risk assessment and risk management. Aside from this proposed mechanism, countries may also have the discretion to determine which chemicals to prioritize or include the “weight of evidence” as basis for inclusion in the priority chemicals.

References:

1. https://chemical.emb.gov.ph/?page_id=52

2. https://chemical.emb.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CO2023-FT1N21722-File_11.pdf

3. https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/chemical-substances-undergoing-prioritization

4. https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/prioritizing-existing-chemicals-risk-evaluation

5. https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/hasec/hazardous-substances/priority-action