South Africa signed up to the OECD’s Mutual Acceptance of Data in the assessment of chemicals, or MAD for short, in February. The system allows the results of a variety of safety tests on chemicals and chemical products, such as industrial chemicals and pesticides, to be shared by signatories.

Testing is carried out using OECD standards for test methods and for data quality. South Africa became a provisional adherent to the system in 1999 and had since worked with OECD countries to make its compliance monitoring programme acceptable to all members. Several other non-OECD countries are at various stages in the process of adherence to the MAD system.

©OECD Observer No 242, March 2004