What is it about?
This publication describes a rapid (high-throughput) method developed by EPA to estimate exposure to over 8,000 environmental chemicals. This method can estimate exposure for the general population as well as demographic groups such as children age 6-11. The method identified the five best predictors (heuristics) of chemical exposure 1) Consumer use and industrial process use; 2) Chemical/industrial process without consumer use; 3) Pesticide (nonactive) use: 4) Pesticide active use; and 5) Total production volume. For the thousands of chemicals with no other available information, this method can be used by EPA to forecast an average exposure intake of chemicals which helps to better protect human health and the environment. More information is available at: http://www2.epa.gov/chemical-research/rapid-chemical-exposure-and-dose-research
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The US EPA ensures the safety of thousands of chemicals. Quantitative exposure data are available for only a small fraction of registered chemicals. This type of exposure data is needed to thoroughly evaluate chemicals for potential risks to humans, wildlife and ecosystems. EPA's high-throughput method is able to estimate exposure for thousands of chemicals to better protect human health and the environment. In fact, EPA is planning to combine the exposure estimates from this method with high-throughput biological activity data on thousands of chemicals to determine which chemicals have the highest potential for endocrine disruption. Endocrine disrupting chemicals can interfere with the endocrine system and lead to problems with reproduction (i.e. egg and sperm production) and development (i.e. healthy fetal growth) in both humans and wildlife.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: High Throughput Heuristics for Prioritizing Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, Environmental Science & Technology, November 2014, American Chemical Society (ACS),
DOI: 10.1021/es503583j.
You can read the full text:
Resources
SHEDS High-Throughput: An Integrated Probabilistic Exposure Model for Prioritizing Exposures to Chemicals with Near-Field and Dietary Sources
The Environmental Science and Technology journal published “SHEDS High-Throughput: An Integrated Probabilistic Exposure Model for Prioritizing Exposures to Chemicals with Near-Field and Dietary Sources” (Isaacs et al, 2014). The paper describes a nearfield SHEDS-HT (Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose Simulation- High-Throughput) model. Developed using EPA’s SHEDS-MM (Multimedia, Multipathway) model, SHEDS-HT produces exposure estimates for thousands of chemicals in a more rapid and cost-effective manner. SHEDS-HT accounts for multiple routes, scenarios, and pathways of exposure to understand the total exposure to these chemicals while retaining population and life stage information. The paper reports on the analysis and results from the model for 2,507 organic chemicals associated with consumer products and agricultural pesticides.
High-throughput Exposure Forecasting Fact Sheet
This fact sheet describes EPA's high-throughput exposure project (ExpoCast).
High-throughput Exposure Website
EPA's website about high-throughput exposure estimates.
Exploring Consumer Exposure Pathways and Patterns of Use for Chemicals in the Environment
One of the best predictors of exposure is whether the chemical is used in a consumer product. EPA is working to understand which chemicals are present in consumer products, homes, the workplace, food, soil and the air. This paper describes the Chemical/Product Categories Database (CPCat), a new, publicly available database of information on chemicals mapped to “use categories” describing the usage or function of the chemical. CPCat was created by combining multiple and diverse sources of data on consumer—and industrial—process based chemical uses from regulatory agencies, manufacturers, and retailers in various countries. The database uses a controlled vocabulary of 833 terms and a novel nomenclature to capture and streamline descriptors of chemical use for 43,596 chemicals from the various sources. Examples of potential applications of CPCat are provided, including identification of chemicals to which children may be exposed and support for prioritization of chemicals for toxicity screening.
High-Throughput Models for Exposure-Based Chemical Prioritization in the ExpoCast Project
ExpoCast is a tool that implements a collection of models and data to provide high-throughput exposure estimations for thousands of chemicals. Evaluating both farfield and nearfield exposure routes, the tool has been used to develop exposure estimates for approximately 1,900 chemicals; these estimates can be used to prioritize chemicals with the greatest likelihood for exposure. There are two papers about high-throughput exposure predictions.
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
