As in previous years, most confidential requests in 2006-07 to search the AICS were for less than ten chemicals per request (97 per cent – 174 out of 180). The remainder included five search requests for between 11 and 20 chemicals, and one for between 21 and 50 chemicals.

 

Since a fee to search the non-confidential section of the AICS was introduced by NICNAS, the number of requests for these searches of non-confidential listings has dramatically decreased and three requests only were received. Three-year trend data for search requests and chemicals searched are shown in Table 13, with three-year trend data for chemicals searched per request shown in Table 14.

 

Table 13: AICS search requests and chemicals searched, over three years

 

2004-05*

2005-06

2006-07

Requests

163

162

180

Chemicals searched

413

521

476

* Introduction of searching fee

 

Table 14: Number of searches per AICS search request, over three years

 

2004-05

2005-06

2006-07

 

No.

(% of total)

No.

(% of total)

No.

(% of total)

1-10

158

(96.9)

149

(92)

174

(97)

11-20

4

(2.4)

9

(5)

5

(2)

21-50

1

(0.7)

3

(2)

1

(1)

>50

-

-

1

(1)

-

-