Benefits of chemical legislation on human health and the environment REF: 870

Cost-benefit analysis is one of the tools commonly used in policy-making: it provides a clear framework for the comparison of the costs and benefits of action (or no-action). Although in some cases a qualitative analysis is sufficient to produce adequate information for a robust conclusion, quantification does bring an added value to the decision making process.

The costs of an action are usually expressed in monetary values; on the other side, benefits quite often do not have a market value and thus other information is required to attempt monetary valuation through, for example, a benefit transfer.

Furthermore, when assessing policy initiatives in the chemicals domain, lack of information and uncertainty need to be dealt with at different levels:

• Mechanisms of action of chemicals on human health and the environment;
• Routes and levels of exposure, together with the population exposed;
• Decrease in the levels of exposure obtained by a policy action.

The overall aim of this project is to define a set of indicators for the assessment and monitoring of the human health and environmental benefits delivered by the European legislative framework for chemicals.