Version 1, October 2022
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For the purposes of the decision-making principles made under section 23 of Industrial Chemicals Environmental Management (Register) Act 2021, the terms:
Persistent means a chemical that meets the indicators and/or numerical thresholds for positive hazard categorisation for the hazard characteristic “Persistence” (Item 1) in Table 1, below.
Bioaccumulative means a chemical that meets the indicators and/or numerical thresholds for positive hazard categorisation for the hazard characteristic “Bioaccumulation” (Item 2) in Table 1, below.
Toxic means a chemical that meets the indicators and/or numerical thresholds for positive hazard categorisation for the hazard characteristic “Toxicity” (Item 3) in Table 1, below.
A chemical is “a PBT” chemical when it is categorised as persistent, and bioaccumulative, and toxic using the criteria in Table 1.
| Item | Hazard characteristic | Environmental medium (or compartment or trophic level) | Indicators and numerical thresholds for positive hazard categorisation and considering environmental relevance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Persistence | Air | Half-life (T½) ≥ 2 days |
| Water | Half-life (T½) ≥ 60 days | ||
| Soil | Half-life (T½) ≥ 6 months | ||
| Sediment | Half-life (T½) ≥ 6 months | ||
| 2 | Bioaccumulation | Aquatic | BAF ≥ 2000 or BCF ≥ 2000 or log Kow ≥ 4.2 (if BAF and BCF are not available) |
| Terrestrial | log Koa > 6 and log Kow ≥ 2 | ||
| Food-chain bioaccumulation potential | BMF > 1 | ||
| 3 | Toxicity | Aquatic – Acute | |
| Fish | 96 h LC50 ≤ 1 mg/L and/or | ||
| Invertebrates | 48 h EC50 ≤ 1 mg/L and/or | ||
| Algae or other aquatic plants | 72 or 96 h ErC50 ≤ 1 mg/L | ||
| ___________________ | |||
| Aquatic – Chronic | |||
| Fish | Chronic NOEC or ECx ≤ 0.1 mg/L and/or | ||
| Invertebrates | Chronic NOEC or ECx ≤ 0.1 mg/L and/or | ||
| Algae or other aquatic plants | Chronic NOEC or ECx ≤ 0.1 mg/L |
BCF = bioconcentration factor; BAF = bioaccumulation factor; Kow = n-octanol/water partition coefficient; Koa = octanol/air partition coefficient; BMF = biomagnification factor; LC50 = concentration lethal to 50% of the population; E(r)C50(x) = concentration that has adverse effects to 50% of the population (or growth rate for algae); NOEC = No Observable Effect Concentration.
For the purposes of the Australian Environmental Criteria for Persistent, Bioaccumulative and/or Toxic Chemicals, half-life (T½), is the time taken for half of a substance to degrade or transform in the specified compartment, measured in days or months.
Note: These are the general criteria and may not be directly applicable to difficult to test substances such as some surfactants and poorly soluble substances. These criteria are not directly applicable to metals and other inorganic chemicals. The Commonwealth risk assessment will identify and justify the PBT characteristics of the chemical.