technical guidance documents - Institute for Health and Consumer ...

ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT
The release of a substance at different stages of its life-cycle should be estimated by order of
preference from:
1. specific information for the given substance (e.g. from producers, product registers or open
literature);
2. specific information from the emission scenario documents (use category documents) for
several industrial categories as well as for some of the 23 biocidal Product Types as given in
Part IV, Chapter 7;
3. emission factors as included in the release tables of Appendix I.
Emissions may occur from a category other than the one to which a substance is allocated. A
substance used in paint will normally be allocated to category 14 “Paints, lacquers and varnishes”.
Though the local emissions of solvents may be considerable at one point source (the paint factory)
at the stage of formulation (paint production), most of the solvent will be emitted at paint
application. The application could be classified in several industrial categories depending on the
type of paint. In case of a do-it-yourself paint it would belong to category 5 “Personal/domestic”, in
case of motor car repair or professional house painting it would be category 15/0 “Others” (wide
dispersive use, so diffuse releases) and in case of motor car production 16 “Engineering industry:
civil and mechanical” (non-dispersive use, so few large point sources).
It is possible that confusion arises when the use of a substance, belonging to a certain specific
process of an industrial category, occurs at another branch of industry. One example is the
application of an additive for an epoxy resin applied in the electronic industry for the embedding
of electronic components. Though the industrial/professional use takes place at category 4
“Electrical/electronic engineering industry” the industrial/professional use of epoxy resins
belongs to category 11 “Polymers industry”. The releases from the process will be found in the
table for the latter category. Further information on main categories, industry categories and use
categories is provided in Appendix I, together with more examples.
For chemical industry, two separate industrial categories exist, one for basic chemicals and
another for chemicals used in synthesis. Basic chemicals are considered to comprise commonly
used chemicals such as solvents and pH-regulating agents such as acids and alkalis. Also the
primary chemicals from the oil refining process are considered as basic chemicals. Substances
used in synthesis fall in two classes, namely intermediates (substances produced from a starting
material to be converted in a subsequent reaction into a next substance) and other substances.
These other substances consist mainly of 'process regulators' (e.g. accelerators, inhibitors,
indicators). For industrial category 5 (personal/domestic) the use and application of substances
(as such or in formulations) is considered at the scale of households. The types of application are
e.g. adhesives, cosmetics, detergents, and pharmaceuticals. Some applications have been covered
in other industrial categories at the stage of private use. These applications comprise fuels and
fuel additives (mineral oil and fuel industry), paint products (paints, lacquers and varnishes
industry) and photochemicals (photographic industry). For industrial category 6 (public domain),
use and application at public buildings, streets, parks, offices, etc. is considered.
The A-tables of Appendix I provide the estimated total release fractions of the production
volume (emission factors) to air, (waste) water and industrial soil during production,
formulation, industrial/professional use, private use, and recovery, according to their industrial
category. The production volume is defined as the total tonnage of a substance brought to the
European market in one year, i.e. the total volume produced in the EU plus the total amount
imported into the EU, and minus the total volume exported from the EU excluding the volume of
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