What do AICIS do?

To promote the safe use of industrial chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment, they:

• conduct scientific risk assessments on the introduction and intended use of industrial chemicals in Australia, and we publish our findings
• maintain the Australian Inventory of Industrial Chemicals (the Inventory)
• issue certificates and authorisations for the introduction of industrial chemicals in Australia
• make risk management recommendations to protect human health and the environment for consideration by other states, territory or Australian Government agencies under their legislation, regulations, and standards
• set and maintain the Industrial Chemicals Categorisation Guidelines
• maintain the Register of Industrial Chemical Introducers
• monitor compliance and investigate any breaches of our laws
• collect statistics on the use of industrial chemicals in Australia
• assist Australia to meet its obligations under international agreements regarding industrial chemicals
• collaborate with other regulatory authorities involved in chemical regulation in Australia
• work with other countries to harmonise and adopt (where applicable in the Australian context) international standards and risk assessment methods

What they don’t do

They don’t:

• register products
• provide general consumer advice on cosmetics or other products
• provide or approve safety data sheets
• regulate the use, storage, disposal, labelling or packaging of industrial chemicals and products containing industrial chemicals
• manage chemical accidents or site remediation

State and territory authorities regulate and enforce appropriate chemical use, storage, and disposal.

How they work

They assess the risks of industrial chemicals to human health and the environment by scientifically interpreting information about chemicals provided by industry (or obtained from other sources) in the context of the intended use of the chemical. You can read the principles covering how and why we assess risk. 

The full cost of administering AICIS is recovered through fees and charges paid by importers and manufacturers (introducers) of industrial chemicals. Read about how we recover costs.