REACH exposure assessment of anticorrosive paint products – Determination of exposure from application and service life to the aquatic environment

The European Community Regulation on the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (REACH) introduced exposure scenarios describing safe use quantitatively, and enhancing the importance of scientific based exposure assessments. This paper presents methods to determine exposure from the airless spray application of anti-corrosive paint and leaching of painted articles submerged in seawater, to establish whether it is possible to test these exposures in a reproducible and feasible way. The paper also presents results from using the methods in order to assess how well the default values recommended under REACH coincide with the tested values and corresponding values available in literature. The methods used were feasible under laboratory conditions. The reproducibility of the application study was shown to be good and all analyses of the leaching showed concentrations below detection limit. More replicates will be required to validate the reproducibility of the growth inhibition tests. Measured values for the present overspray scenario were between, and the leaching values below, values from REACH guidelines and emission scenario documents. Further development of the methods is recommended.