Compilation of chemical indicators — Development, revision and additional analyses - Products Statistical working papers

This methodology paper aims to give a comprehensive description of the way chemical indicators have been developed by Eurostat. It explains the compilation process of the indicators on:
- ‘Production of toxic chemicals’,
- ‘Production of environmentally harmful chemicals’,
as well as the two related ‘consumption’ indicators.

This methodology paper focuses on the first of these indicators, ‘Production of toxic chemicals’ and explains the methodological adaptations and revisions of the indicators that became necessary due to:
- the enlargement of the EU, most recently from EU-27 to EU-28 with the accession of Croatia,
- changes in the PRODCOM list, and
- changes in the hazard classification of chemical substances, triggered by the introduction of Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP Regulation), which form the basis of an assignment to a toxicity class.

The paper describes the approaches for dealing with these changes. In addition, the paper discusses the results obtained before and after implementing these changes. Specifically, results obtained with the old system of hazard classification (risk phrases according to Directive 67/548/EEC) are compared with those obtained with the new system (hazard statements according to the CLP Regulation). These comparisons show that the changes observed are not due to differences between risk phrases and hazard statements. Rather, the use of the Classification & Labelling Inventory (also established under the CLP Regulation) allowed the extraction of more up-to-date hazard classifications with a defined methodology. Overall, this revision leads to more robust hazard information compared to the old approach.
The new approach assigns more chemicals to classes of higher toxicity. However, the analyses presented in the paper show that this change does not necessarily translate into higher tonnages for these toxicity classes. The number of substances in a particular toxicity class is often less decisive than the production volume of a specific substance. A change in the toxicity class assignment for a very high production volume chemical may therefore have a higher impact than changes for several lower production volume chemicals.
Consumption data, which include imports and exports, reveal that the EU is a net importer of chemicals. No specific development is evident in relation to toxicity classes. For example, ‘toxic chemicals’ have a high share in net imports, while ‘carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic’ (CMR) chemicals have a low share.
A separate analysis annexed to this methodology paper shows that many of the substances evaluated for the indicator ’Production of toxic chemicals’ have the potential to lead to exposure of humans and the environment. The underlying analyses and results have no impact on the calculation of the indicator, but are important for a correct interpretation of the indicators.
The basic set of the indicators developed by Eurostat and the databases they refer to allow a detailed analysis of time trends of the production and consumption of chemicals in Europe, including the share of toxic chemicals, based on official EU statistics.