TERA Focuses on Acetaldehyde
And Phenol Assessments

RiskWorld News Brief

In its most recent review of risk assessments on potentially harmful chemicals, TERA (Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment), a non-profit risk assessment corporation based in Cincinnati, Ohio, focused on assessments of phenol and acetaldehyde.

• Phenol is primarily a man-made chemical, with its largest single use in the manufacture of plastics. It is also found in some consumer products and is naturally produced in the gut of humans.
• Acetaldehyde is produced for use in the manufacture of other chemicals and also occurs naturally in certain foods and green plants.

The Priority Substances Section of the governmental department Health Canada had assessed each chemical’s toxicity under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and then presented the assessments for review before a diverse panel of scientists that TERA assembled from industry, government, universities, and consulting firms. TERA founder and President Michael L. Dourson chaired the meeting, which was held September 30, 1997.

In the case of phenol, Health Canada had proposed an oral Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) for non-cancer health effects. Several issues were discussed, including the differences between the findings from early longer-term studies and more recent short-term studies, the adequacy of the immunotoxicity data for the dose-response evaluation, and the appropriate uncertainty factor to address the uncertainties in the database. The TERA-convened panel did not reach total agreement on which dose level and uncertainty factors were most appropriate and recommended that Health Canada move forward describing the rationale and results of each option.

In the case of acetaldehyde, both the cancer and non-cancer assessments had identified critical effects at the site of contact. The TERA-convened panel did a side-by-side comparison of the benchmark concentration (BMC-05) for noncancer effects with the tolerable concentration (TC-05) for cancer and agreed that these effects are clearly seen in the same dose range.

For a more complete report, see http://www.tera.org/news.

Story posted October 24, 1997.

Go to:

Copyright © 1997 by Tec-Com Inc.