The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has opened a new database that allows you to search for your favorite toxic chemicals.
The EPA said the Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource database provides information on more than 500,000 man-made chemicals, including the physical makeup, toxicity and experimental and test results of each chemical. The EPA has culled the data from more than 200 public resources, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Institute of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health and Environment Canada, the European Union and the World Health Organization.
The database will not only serve scientists and the public, it also will help the EPA better regulate chemicals. The EPA currently regulates nearly 10,000 chemicals. The database will enable staff at the EPA’s National Center for Computational Toxicology to analyze the chemicals’ potential toxicity by using computer modeling and other methods.
The center’s work, in turn, will help the EPA identify missing information and prompt more testing of the chemicals, the EPA said. What the EPA has found so far is that it has acute toxicity data for 59 percent of the chemicals it regulates, but it only has carcinogenicity testing data for 29 percent of them. For data on the chemicals’ effects on the reproductive health of humans or other animals, the EPA said it only has information on 11 percent of the chemicals.
California also is working on developing a more comprehensive chemical database. The state wants what will be a publicly accessible database to help consumers evaluate the products they buy and use (remember the poisonous toys from China?). About 100,000 chemicals are used to make consumer products today, said Maureen Gorsen, director of the California Department of Toxic Substance Control, at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco last month.
The department, part of the Cal EPA, is developing the database. Another new law also is giving the department the power to identify and rank chemicals that pose health threats and to determine alternatives for manufacturers to use.
