１． Objectives and Features

As one of the 45 research units in the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), the Research Center for Chemical Risk Management (CRM) was established in April, 2001. CRM has been dedicated to a variety of research activities in risk assessment and risk management of chemicals.

The ultimate purpose of research activities at CRM is to support science-based and rational decision-making among government, industry and public in chemical risk management through providing frameworks of chemical risk assessment and management and actual examples in which such frameworks are applied.

Since its establishment, CRM has been engaged in research and development in the areas of chemical risk assessment and management including exposure assessment, hazard assessment, risk assessment, and socio-economic evaluation for risk management. CRM has established and been maintained its leading position in Japan and globally in development of intellectual, informational and social infrastructures for strategic approaches in integrated risk assessment and management of chemical substances.

In the area of exposure assessment, in particular, CRM has the most advanced level of science and technology in Japan which has been developed based on the past achievement at National Institute of Resources and Environment. CRM is the only research institute in Japan that has the organization to support researches in integrated chemical risk management including development of methodologies in socio-economic evaluation.

Further, CRM focuses on dissemination of research outcomes in such forms as can be used by various people including non-scientists. CRM has developed a number of tools including standardized protocols or manuals for risk assessment and risk estimation software, and released them for free public use.

The researches at CRM and their outcomes contribute to promotion of chemical regulations under the Chemical Substance Control Law and PRTR system, and voluntary chemical management of industries as well as to facilitating risk communications.

2. Research Projects

Researchers at CRM are engaged in both basic research and practical research: the basic research in a specific scientific area is defined as vertical research and the practical research encompasses a number of scientific areas in risk assessment and management of a specific chemical substance is defined as horizontal research.

Each researcher at CRM is required to engage in both vertical and horizontal researches. Through the experiences of integrated research activities in matrices of vertical and horizontal researches, they are required to develop an overall understanding of environmental risk assessment as well as achievement in his/her own area of expertise.

This is a new approach in research activities, which, however, is very important to promote researches in environmental chemical risk assessment which is an interdisciplinary area including various scientific fields.

It is expected that in the process of horizontal research activities to deal with the data and information outside of one’s own expertise, a researcher can gain better understanding on the other areas required for chemical risk assessment, which would activate communications across the borders of scientific areas and improve research activities in a specific scientific area as well as integrated research activities.

The first outcome of the horizontal research activities at CRM, “Risk Assessment of 1,3-Butadiene” was released in 2002. Risk assessment documents for more than 10 substances were developed in CRM and since 2004 published from Maruzen Co., Ltd. as Risk Assessment Series.