By Amy Charlene
Reed, RiskWorld staff
E-mail to: reed@tec-com.com.
An on-line database that is aimed at risk assessors and managers
around the world who need human health risk values will nearly
double in size this month with a major addition of new chemical
risk assessments.
The International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER) database, which currently contains assessments of 21 chemicals, will add assessments of 17 additional chemicals by the end of September.
In addition, an independent peer panel will review the toxicity assessments of two more chemicals, acrylonitrile and hexachlorobutadiene, for possible inclusion in the ITER database. This peer review meeting will be held on September 19-20, 1996, at the University of Cincinnati's College of Medicine in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is open to the public. (See agenda for more details.)
The database's creator, the non-profit Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA) organization, began the database by first compiling risk values from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Health Canada, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in a consistent format to make comparisons easier.
"Our database is unique because it allows the user to compare a number of key organizations' values and to determine the best value to use for the human exposure situation being evaluated," said TERA founder Michael L. Dourson, who was chief of the group that helped create the U.S. EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) in 1986. "Other sources of these data generally contain values from just one organization, and sometimes contain outdated values or values that do not make full use of all toxicity data."
TERA is expanding the database both by conducting quarterly peer reviews of chemical toxicity assessments from independent groups and by adding existing chemical toxicity assessments from organizations such as the World Health Organization, the International Programme on Chemical Safety and Rijksinstituut Voor Volksgezondheid en Milieuhygiene (RIVM) of the Netherlands.
Editor’s note: Health Canada, formerly called Health and Welfare Canada, is a department of the Canadian national government. Health Canada’s Priority Substances Section of its Environmental Health Directorate is responsible for evaluating the health effects of environmental contaminants as mandated by the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
Editor’s note: The primary use of acrylonitrile is as the raw material for the manufacture of acrylic fibers. Other major uses include the production of plastics, nitrile rubbers, nitrile barrier resins, and acrylamide.
TERA developed its assessment of the inhalation cancer risk from acrylonitrile for CYTEC Industries, using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed cancer guidelines.
Editor’s note: Hexachlorobutadiene is used as a chemical intermediate in the manufacturing of chlorinated hydrocarbons such as trichloroethylene and also as a fumigant in a number of countries.
Story posted September 11, 1996
Copyright © 1996 by Tec-Com Inc.