E.P.A. Delivers Chemical Screening Data on 1,800 Chemicals/Agency improves access to chemical data and declares ToxCast Data Challenges

"EPA's use of cost effective advanced chemical screening techniques has transformed this country's knowledge of the safety of almost 2,000 chemicals currently in use," said Lek Kadeli, acting assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Research and Development. "Today's release marks an important milestone in communicating and improving our understanding of the impact chemicals have on human health and the environment."

As part of this data release, E.P.A. is announcing the ToxCast Data Challenges, a series of challenges inviting the science and technology community to work with the data and provide solutions for how the new chemical screening data can be used to predict potential health effects. Challenge winners will gain awards for their innovative research ideas.

The data were gathered through advanced techniques, including robotics and high-throughput screening, as part of an ongoing federal collaboration to enhance chemical screening. The collaboration, Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century (Tox21), is comprised of EPA, the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences/National Toxicology Plan, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the Food and Drug Administration.

"Making these data publicly accessible will help researchers across disciplines to better identify hazardous chemicals, " said Raymond Tice, Ph.D., who heads the Biomolecular Screening Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of NIH. "We are pleased to be a partner in these collaborative efforts and look forward to further enhancing the amount of Tox21 data accessible to the public."

"Our robotics screening system is an integral part of the Tox21 effort as it provides unparalleled speed, reliability and high-quality reproducible data," said Anton Simeonov, Ph.D., who is the Tox21 lead at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. "The public release of Tox21 data is sure to accelerate chemical assessment."

Only a fraction of chemicals in use in the U.S. have been adequately assessed for potential risk. This information is useful for prioritizing chemicals for potential risk as well as predicting if chemical exposures could lead to adverse health effects.

More information:
iCSS dashboard: http://actor.epa.gov/dashboard/
Tox21: http://epa.gov/ncct/Tox21/
E.P.A. Chemical Safety Research: http://www.epa.gov/research/chemicalscience/
ToxCast Data Challenges: http://epa.gov/ncct/challenges.html

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