Australian PBT criteria

[Mike Dewhirst]

Adjust the Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic criteria per the Department of Environment definition at ...

​https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/australian-pbt-criteria.pdf

... and adjust the software accordingly if required.

[Mike Dewhirst]

Australian Environmental Criteria for Persistent, Bioaccumulative and/or Toxic Chemicals

Version 1, October 2022

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 (next page).

Table 1: The Australian Criteria for Persistent, Bioaccumulative and/or Toxic Chemicals are indicators used to categorise Persistence, Bioaccumulation and Toxicity characteristics of organic chemicals.

Item	Hazard	Medium or Trophic level	Thresholds
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

[Mike Dewhirst]

PBT Guidelines 6.26

• Remove "(or the chemical of which it is an ester or a salt)"

Bioaccumulation factor: No difference between Guidelines 6.31 from 24 June 2021 and 26 March 2024

Persistence