BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment Commission for the Assessment of Poisonings

The BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment Commission for the Assessment of Poisonings aims to advise the BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment on relevant issues of the clinical toxicology of poisoning cases or suspected cases of poisoning, as well as matters of toxicovigilance. The role of toxicovigilance is to identify the causes and circumstances of accidents and to identify and assess clinically relevant poisoning risks in connection with acute and chronic cases and clinical toxicological trends at an early stage. These are presented transparently and thus help to protect consumers, especially children, even better. Another task of toxicovigilance is to review the effectiveness of measures taken as part of risk management and to suggest further steps if necessary. Toxicovigilance is therefore an important part of state consumer protection in Germany.

The task of the Commission for the Assessment of Poisonings is to actively advise the BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment on the identification and assessment of health risk  caused by products, substances and other noxious agents. The BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment is supported by the expertise of the commission members in all associated procedures and processes, such as information gathering from the national product register containing data for emergency medical advice or from the national poisoning register. 

The Commission cooperates closely with the seven German poison centres, as well as national and European scientific institutions and societies on the subject. The exchange of experience and knowledge with related institutions in Austria and Switzerland is a key aspect of its work.

The legal basis for these tasks of the BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment is the German Chemicals Act and the provisions of European chemicals legislation (REACH and CLP).