THE ASSESSMENT OF SURFACTANTS FOR THE HARMONISED

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MANDATORY CONTROL SYSTEM BY THE CHARM MODEL

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Royal Society of Chemistry

2003

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INTRODUCTION

The use and discharge of chemicals offshore has been closely regulated for many years but

different countries have had different systems in place for regulation. The OSPAR Decision on

the Harmonised Mandatory Control System (HMCS) was introduced in 2000 with a view to unifying

regulations regarding the use and reduction of the discharge of offshore chemicals across the

Northeast Atlantic region. The objective of the HMCS is to protect the marine environment by

identifying those chemicals used in offshore oil and gas operations with the potential for causing an

adverse environmental impact, and restricting their use and discharge to the sea. Accordingly,

the legislation should drive the development and selection of offshore chemicals that have the

lowest impact on the marine environment. A series of associated Recommendations provide

guidance on how to compare the potential environmental impact of different chemicals. This

involves the generation of an environmental data set (i.e. toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation

potential) and its evaluation using pre-screening criteria and a decision-support tool called CHARM

(Chemical Hazard Assessment and Risk Management) Model.