Chemical Reference Guide
Our world is made up of chemicals - those that occur naturally and those that are manufactured for a huge range of purposes. The environment can be exposed to such chemicals. Determining if these chemicals are at levels harmful to organisms (including humans) in the environment is the key to sustaining these environments into the future. In order to determine if chemical levels in the environment are below harmful levels, considerable research is conducted to determine the fate and effect of these chemicals in air, water, soil and biota. This information is analysed to derive safe concentration values that should be achieved in order to protect ecosystems and human health.
To date, there is no one document containing all of the various guidelines and standards used for the management of chemicals in Australia. Various guideline documents do exist for different environmental matrices (e.g. air, soil or water), though these are diverse and in many cases region specific. This web-site provides for the first time in Australia a collation of all national documents for chemicals in our environment. This encompasses five media including air, water, soil, sediment and biota. Documents used to compile this listing include those used to protect ecosystems and the humans that interact with or consume products from these ecosystems.
It is strongly recommended that all users of this web-site read the Supporting Guide before entering the National Chemical Reference Guide Database. Here you will find additional information on everything in the database, including, where this information was collated, how this information was derived, how guidelines and standards are used, and how these should be applied.
References to guideline documents will provide information on how to adapt values to specific conditions. Should an environment display signs of degradation despite guideline values being met, it is recommended to contact the agency that has set the guidelines so that the issue can be addressed when guideline values are reviewed.
