Estonia: Formez is a Partner in the Monitoring Process of Chemical Risks to Health and Environment

The Twinning project “Raising Awareness on Exposure-based Risk Assessment of Chemicals” is directed to the Estonian Inspectorate for Health Protection as well as the Labor Inspectorate, the Technical Inspectorate and the national Environmental Inspectorate. The initiative launched in December 2007, is coordinated by the Italian Ministry of Health as the leader, together with Formez, ISS and ARPA Veneto as partners.
In addition to the financial, administrative and logistic management of the project activities, Formez will be able to provide consultancy and know how through its experts in Information Technology.
The initiative also aims at providing institutional support to those bodies who are responsible for monitoring potential chemical risks in compliance with EU directives and REACH regulations as well as assistance in terms of the impact which plans and programs on environment can produce in order to protect health and environment.
The Twinning project is divided into five key activities including a final study visit and training in various fields e.g. assessment of the risks deriving from chemicals, strategic environmental assessment and assessment of the environmental impact, substance assessment in accordance with REACH regulations and Safety Data Sheets (SDS).
The activities will start with a cycle of basic conferences suitable for training the operational and regulatory personnel on chemical risk assessment and management, in order to provide the competent authorities with a technical expert report aimed at supporting the stakeholders in compliance with EC regulation 1907 of 2006.
In the subsequent phase, the beneficiaries will analyze a formal evaluation of the risks by taking into consideration the fields of exposure during the life cycle of the substance. The capacity of characterizing and managing the risks is also of great relevance.
Once the training course carried out in the beneficiary country concludes, the participants from the Estonian institutions will be invited in the country of reference to study in a practical and direct manner, the techniques acquired from the Italian authorities with regard to the work regime in the strategic environmental sector and in terms of risk assessment and management.