The Chemical Alternative Assessment (CAA) is the process of identifying concerned chemical substances and selecting their safe alternatives. To advance towards sustainable green chemistry and establish a "safe and sustainable chemistry environment", the Chemicals Administration, Ministry of Environment has employed technological and strategic approaches to explore safe alternatives for chemical substances.

1.Safe Alternatives for Chemical Substances in the Life Cycle Impact Assessment

The integration of life cycle thinking into the CAA method is crucial. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systematic assessment method used to quantify environmental impacts caused by products, services, or processes across various stages, from raw materials extraction to processing, manufacturing, use, and end of life. Hazard assessment of chemical substances primarily focuses on human exposure risks during usage. Integrating it with LCA will facilitate discussions on potential hazards caused by even more environmental receptors during the usage of chemical substances. Moreover, it will allow the analysis of energy and resource requirements of chemical substances during the manufacturing stage, along with potential environmental risks. Introducing life cycle thinking to CAA will provide comprehensive information on chemical substance impact assessment, helping to prevent unforeseen environmental hazards.

2.Safe Alternatives for Green Chemistry

Based on the principles of green chemistry, the Administration will: establish operating procedures for searching, assessing, and screening safe alternatives for high-risk chemical substances; complete the establishment of a framework for a systematic database; utilize technology such as artificial intelligence and deep learning to quantify risk characteristics; integrate databases and data from documents; adhere to the hazard and risk assessment principles outlined in GreenScreen; establish operations for hazard assessment and scoring, and; develop criteria for risk level assessment. In the future, this will serve business entities in selecting chemical substances and safe alternatives for chemical substances.