A key role in the launching of Voluntary Risk Assessment for copper

Voluntary Risk Assessment

KME played a key role in the launching of Voluntary Risk Assessment for copper, which is an activity of primary importance for the entire European copper industry.

Community regulation 93/793/EC provides for the institution of a procedure to evaluate the risk for man and the environment due to their respective exposure to a number of listed chemical substances.  The procedure provides that industry may establish voluntary risk evaluations for a number of substances which are not so listed.

Copper is not a listed substance, but the copper industry was the first (along with zinc and lead) to establish this VRA (Voluntary Risk Assessment), considering that a scientific evaluation of the risk in line with EU procedures would yield correct information and promote the use of copper by removing any doubt regarding its hazardous nature.

This was a courageous initiative, which KME is proud to have contributed to from 2002 onwards. The procedure provides that voluntary assessments, before being formally presented to the Community, must be critically evaluated by a member state of the Union (Review Country). KME, given its key position in the European copper industry, charged its Italian company KME Italy with verifying and obtaining, on behalf of the ECI (European Copper Institute), the willingness of the Italian Government to play the role of Review Country. The initiative was successful and the proposal was accepted by the EU which entrusted the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS – National Health Institute) with the role of Review Country on behalf of the European Union.

KME continued to act as coordinator between the ISS and ECI for the five years of the project, which saw the participation of a series of external consultants and was submitted to a Peer Review Panel (PRP) of internationally renowned scientific experts.

The conclusions highlight a substantial absence of human and environmental risk deriving from exposure to copper, also due to the growing use of environmental protection and filtering systems in production facilities.

In 2005, the ECI and ISS officially submitted the document to the European Union which started its own review process based on the TCNES Review Process, a Europe-wide industrial technical committee.

The process will soon be concluded and the approval of VRA for copper is expected to be announced in Spring 2008.

Furthermore, during 2008, the ECI will submit the VRA document for copper to the OCSE for approval and application internationally.