Bundestag clears the way for the establishment of a central poisoning register
02.10.2023 15:50
A poisoning register is being set up at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). In the future, all reported cases of poisoning in Germany will be recorded centrally for the first time. With the votes of the SPD, Alliance 90/The Greens, FDP and Die Linke, the Bundestag approved the corresponding Fourth Law amending the Chemicals Act (20/6952) on Thursday, September 28, 2023. The Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection had previously made changes to the original text (20/8486). The CDU/CSU and AfD voted against the law initiated by the federal government.
Federal government bill
The federal government writes that central recording provides an overview of the actual poisoning events and closes existing information gaps.
Until now, the BfR and the federal state poison information centers (GIZ) have collected information about poisonings independently of each other. According to the law, a systematic and central collection and evaluation of this data has not yet taken place. However, various European regulations require systematic registration of cases of poisoning and would also require Germany to report and provide information in the event of supra-regional chemical health threats.
Regulations on good laboratory practice
The change in the law is also intended to update the regulations in the Chemicals Act on Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and adapt them to the requirements and requirements of cooperation with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union. The GLP is an internationally recognized quality assurance system for safety tests in the environmental and health sectors.
Among other things, it should be made clear that the BfR, as the federal GLP agency, plays the central role in enforcing the regulations. It is also planned that the BfR will take on “monitoring tasks” and issue GLP certificates. The draft law also provides for a revision of the fine schedule in order to clearly separate criminal offenses from administrative offenses. (from/sas/09/28/2023)