Portal latinoamericano de toxicología
EPA & Toxic Chemicals
26 March, 2009
EPA Changes Method For Evaluating Toxic Chemicals. By Jesse Greenspan.New York (March 25, 2009) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a strategic plan Wednesday that would purportedly allow it to better assess risks from chemicals by adopting new toxicity testing methods that use recent advances in molecular biology, genomics and computational sciences. Read more.
Under the EPA’s traditional risk assessment approach, the agency relied mostly on data generated through the intentional dosing of experimental animals.
“While this approach has provided EPA with sound science to support regulatory decision-making over the past several decades, EPA must address ever-increasing demands, including consideration of complex issues such as cumulative exposures, life-stage vulnerabilities and genetic susceptibilities, not to mention the increasing number of chemicals and cost of toxicity testing,” the EPA said.
The new approach will allegedly focus more on identifying and evaluating “cellular response pathways responsible for adverse health effects when sufficiently perturbed by environmental agents under realistic exposure conditions.”
Not only will the new approach be more cost-effective, but it will also expand the number of pollutants assessed for possible risks and create more efficient ways to evaluate those pollutants, according to the EPA.
“When fully implemented, EPA will be able to screen thousands of environmental chemicals quickly for potentially harmful effects,” the agency said. “The strategic plan will also allow EPA scientists to look at how children may react differently to the same chemicals as adults, thus providing better health protection for children.”
The strategic plan, officially called the “U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Strategic Plan for Evaluating the Toxicity of Chemicals,” has three components: chemical screening and prioritization, toxicity pathway-based risk assessment and institutional transition.
Over time, focus is expected to shift from the first of those components to the latter two.
“This approach is based on the rapidly evolving scientific understanding of how genes, proteins and small molecules interact to form molecular pathways that maintain cell function,” the EPA said. “The goal is to determine how exposure to environmental agents can perturb these pathways causing a cascade of subsequent key events leading to adverse health effects.”
According to the National Research Council, a nonprofit that works to improve public policy, the strategic plan will require funding of up to $100 million per year for 10 to 20 years in order to have a reasonable chance of success.
Right now, though, funding is far below that level.
Other places in the world that have implemented similar plans include the European Union, Japan and South Korea.
“While this approach has provided EPA with sound science to support regulatory decision-making over the past several decades, EPA must address ever-increasing demands, including consideration of complex issues such as cumulative exposures, life-stage vulnerabilities and genetic susceptibilities, not to mention the increasing number of chemicals and cost of toxicity testing,” the EPA said.
The new approach will allegedly focus more on identifying and evaluating “cellular response pathways responsible for adverse health effects when sufficiently perturbed by environmental agents under realistic exposure conditions.”
Not only will the new approach be more cost-effective, but it will also expand the number of pollutants assessed for possible risks and create more efficient ways to evaluate those pollutants, according to the EPA.
“When fully implemented, EPA will be able to screen thousands of environmental chemicals quickly for potentially harmful effects,” the agency said. “The strategic plan will also allow EPA scientists to look at how children may react differently to the same chemicals as adults, thus providing better health protection for children.”
The strategic plan, officially called the “U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Strategic Plan for Evaluating the Toxicity of Chemicals,” has three components: chemical screening and prioritization, toxicity pathway-based risk assessment and institutional transition.
Over time, focus is expected to shift from the first of those components to the latter two.
“This approach is based on the rapidly evolving scientific understanding of how genes, proteins and small molecules interact to form molecular pathways that maintain cell function,” the EPA said. “The goal is to determine how exposure to environmental agents can perturb these pathways causing a cascade of subsequent key events leading to adverse health effects.”
According to the National Research Council, a nonprofit that works to improve public policy, the strategic plan will require funding of up to $100 million per year for 10 to 20 years in order to have a reasonable chance of success.
Right now, though, funding is far below that level.
Other places in the world that have implemented similar plans include the European Union, Japan and South Korea.