Comparisons of Chemical Ranking and Scoring Methods

Although the variety and quantities of chemicals used have been increasing, no management strategies have been developed for these chemicals in our country. Therefore, it is important to identify the hazardous characteristics of chemicals and establish reasonable and effective management plans for them. However, because insufficient resources are available to evaluate all aspects of many varieties of chemicals, studies on suitable chemical ranking and scoring (CRS) system should be performed to ensure effective screening of priority chemicals.. In addition, because most CRS systems have their own goals, it is impossible for only one generic system to be consistent with all the uses that have been developed. Therefore, priority systems should be developed with specific and clearly defined purposes in our nation. In this study, we investigated and discussed exist-ing CRS systems, and proposed several elements and principles when designing CRS systems. First of all, the system should have clearly defined goals, keep neutral, and employ simple methods. In addition, researchers need to perform sensitivity analysis to find the main variables responsible for uncertainties and use the tiered approach to compose the effective management strategies for chemicals.ope