Application of Modern Toxicology Approaches for Predicting Acute Toxicity for Chemical Defense PDF Download

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309376696
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
The US Department of Defense (DOD) is faced with an overwhelming task in evaluating chemicals that could potentially pose a threat to its deployed personnel. There are over 84,000 registered chemicals, and testing them with traditional toxicity-testing methods is not feasible in terms of time or money. In recent years, there has been a concerted effort to develop new approaches to toxicity testing that incorporate advances in systems biology, toxicogenomics, bioinformatics, and computational toxicology. Given the advances, DOD asked the National Research Council to determine how DOD could use modern approaches for predicting chemical toxicity in its efforts to prevent debilitating, acute exposures to deployed personnel. This report provides an overall conceptual approach that DOD could use to develop a predictive toxicology system. Application of Modern Toxicology Approaches for Predicting Acute Toxicity for Chemical Defense reviews the current state of computational and high-throughput approaches for predicting acute toxicity and suggests methods for integrating data and predictions. This report concludes with lessons learned from current high-throughput screening programs and suggests some initial steps for DOD investment.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309151732
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Advances in molecular biology and toxicology are paving the way for major improvements in the evaluation of the hazards posed by the large number of chemicals found at low levels in the environment. The National Research Council was asked by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review the state of the science and create a far-reaching vision for the future of toxicity testing. The book finds that developing, improving, and validating new laboratory tools based on recent scientific advances could significantly improve our ability to understand the hazards and risks posed by chemicals. This new knowledge would lead to much more informed environmental regulations and dramatically reduce the need for animal testing because the new tests would be based on human cells and cell components. Substantial scientific efforts and resources will be required to leverage these new technologies to realize the vision, but the result will be a more efficient, informative and less costly system for assessing the hazards posed by industrial chemicals and pesticides.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309070864
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Scientific Frontiers in Developmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment reviews advances made during the last 10-15 years in fields such as developmental biology, molecular biology, and genetics. It describes a novel approach for how these advances might be used in combination with existing methodologies to further the understanding of mechanisms of developmental toxicity, to improve the assessment of chemicals for their ability to cause developmental toxicity, and to improve risk assessment for developmental defects. For example, based on the recent advances, even the smallest, simplest laboratory animals such as the fruit fly, roundworm, and zebrafish might be able to serve as developmental toxicological models for human biological systems. Use of such organisms might allow for rapid and inexpensive testing of large numbers of chemicals for their potential to cause developmental toxicity; presently, there are little or no developmental toxicity data available for the majority of natural and manufactured chemicals in use. This new approach to developmental toxicology and risk assessment will require simultaneous research on several fronts by experts from multiple scientific disciplines, including developmental toxicologists, developmental biologists, geneticists, epidemiologists, and biostatisticians.

Author: A. Wallace Hayes
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 9780128159217
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Loomis's Essentials of Toxicology, Fifth Edition, provides the information on the harmful biologic effects associated with exposures to chemicals of all types. The scope of this book includes a discussion of the major types of chemicals involved, their general properties and detrimental biologic effects, the methods used to demonstrate these effects, the basis for clinical diagnosis, and therapy for the harmful effects of chemicals on humans. Individual examples are used to demonstrate the principle discussed. This reference volume will be an invaluable resource for both toxicologists and graduate and advanced undergraduate students in toxicology and public health.

Author: Kathrin Herrmann
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789004356184
Category : Animal experimentation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Animal Experimentation: Working Towards a Paradigm Change critically appraises current animal use in science and discusses ways in which we can contribute to a paradigm change towards human-biology based approaches.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309449189
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
Extremely hazardous substances can be released accidentally as a result of chemical spills, industrial explosions, fires, or accidents involving railroad cars and trucks transporting EHSs. Workers and residents in communities surrounding industrial facilities where these substances are manufactured, used, or stored and in communities along the nation's railways and highways are potentially at risk of being exposed to airborne EHSs during accidental releases or intentional releases by terrorists. Pursuant to the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified approximately 400 EHSs on the basis of acute lethality data in rodents. Acute Exposure Guideline Levels for Selected Airborne Chemicals, Volume 20 reviews and updates the technical support document on acute exposure guideline levels (AEGLs) for selected chloroformates. This update focuses on establishing AEGL-3 values for n-propyl chloroformate and isopropyl chloroformate, but will also consider whether any new data are available that would affect the proposed values for the other 10 chloroformates. AEGLs represent threshold exposure limits (exposure levels below which adverse health effects are not likely to occur) for the general public and are applicable to emergency exposures ranging from 10 minutes (min) to 8 h. Three levels - AEGL-1, AEGL-2, and AEGL-3 - are developed for each of five exposure periods (10 min, 30 min, 1 h, 4 h, and 8 h) and are distinguished by varying degrees of severity of toxic effects. This report will inform planning, response, and prevention in the community, the workplace, transportation, the military, and the remediation of Superfund sites.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309491215
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 103

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Book Description
In the 1970s, flame retardants began to be added to synthetic materials to meet strict flammability standards. Over the years, diverse flame retardants have been manufactured and used in various products. Some flame retardants have migrated out of the products, and this has led to widespread human exposure and environmental contamination. There also is mounting evidence that many flame retardants are associated with adverse human health effects. As a result, some flame retardants have been banned, restricted, or voluntarily phased out of production and use. This publication develops a scientifically based scoping plan to assess additive, nonpolymeric organohalogen flame retardants as a class for potential chronic health hazards under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act, including cancer, birth defects, and gene mutations.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309310164
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Historically, regulations governing chemical use have often focused on widely used chemicals and acute human health effects of exposure to them, as well as their potential to cause cancer and other adverse health effects. As scientific knowledge has expanded there has been an increased awareness of the mechanisms through which chemicals may exert harmful effects on human health, as well as their effects on other species and ecosystems. Identification of high-priority chemicals and other chemicals of concern has prompted a growing number of state and local governments, as well as major companies, to take steps beyond existing hazardous chemical federal legislation. Interest in approaches and policies that ensure that any new substances substituted for chemicals of concern are assessed as carefully and thoroughly as possible has also burgeoned. The overarching goal of these approaches is to avoid regrettable substitutions, which occur when a toxic chemical is replaced by another chemical that later proved unsuitable because of persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity, or other concerns. Chemical alternative assessments are tools designed to facilitate consideration of these factors to assist stakeholders in identifying chemicals that may have the greatest likelihood of harm to human and ecological health, and to provide guidance on how the industry may develop and adopt safer alternatives. A Framework to Guide Selection of Chemical Alternatives develops and demonstrates a decision framework for evaluating potentially safer substitute chemicals as primarily determined by human health and ecological risks. This new framework is informed by previous efforts by regulatory agencies, academic institutions, and others to develop alternative assessment frameworks that could be operationalized. In addition to hazard assessments, the framework incorporates steps for life-cycle thinking - which considers possible impacts of a chemical at all stages including production, use, and disposal - as well as steps for performance and economic assessments. The report also highlights how modern information sources such as computational modeling can supplement traditional toxicology data in the assessment process. This new framework allows the evaluation of the full range of benefits and shortcomings of substitutes, and examination of tradeoffs between these risks and factors such as product functionality, product efficacy, process safety, and resource use. Through case studies, this report demonstrates how different users in contrasting decision contexts with diverse priorities can apply the framework. This report will be an essential resource to the chemical industry, environmentalists, ecologists, and state and local governments.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309390788
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 65

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Book Description
Human spaceflight is inherently risky, with numerous potential hazards posed at each phase of a mission. Potential health risks during spaceflights include short-term health consequences from being in microgravity, as well as long-term health consequences that arise, or continue, months or years after a flight. Additional health considerations are risks posed by exposure to environmental contaminants onboard spacecraft. Because the International Space Station and spacecraft are closed environments that require recirculation of air and water supplies, some contamination of the air and water will occur. Even with onboard air and water purification systems, chemicals will accumulate in the air and water as they recirculate or are recycled onboard. Therefore, it is necessary for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to identify hazardous contaminants and determine exposure levels that are not expected to pose a health risk to astronauts. NASA uses spacecraft maximum allowance concentrations (SMACs) and spacecraft water exposure guidelines (SWEGs) to provide guidance on acceptable exposures to air and water contaminants during normal operations and emergency situations. Refinements to the Methods for Developing Spacecraft Exposure Guidelines updates the methods for establishing SMACs and SWEGs and assists NASA with identifying chemicals that need updated SMACs or SWEGs and new chemicals for which these guidelines should be developed.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309453518
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Over the last decade, several large-scale United States and international programs have been initiated to incorporate advances in molecular and cellular biology, -omics technologies, analytical methods, bioinformatics, and computational tools and methods into the field of toxicology. Similar efforts are being pursued in the field of exposure science with the goals of obtaining more accurate and complete exposure data on individuals and populations for thousands of chemicals over the lifespan; predicting exposures from use data and chemical-property information; and translating exposures between test systems and humans. Using 21st Century Science to Improve Risk-Related Evaluations makes recommendations for integrating new scientific approaches into risk-based evaluations. This study considers the scientific advances that have occurred following the publication of the NRC reports Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy and Exposure Science in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy. Given the various ongoing lines of investigation and new data streams that have emerged, this publication proposes how best to integrate and use the emerging results in evaluating chemical risk. Using 21st Century Science to Improve Risk-Related Evaluations considers whether a new paradigm is needed for data validation, how to integrate the divergent data streams, how uncertainty might need to be characterized, and how best to communicate the new approaches so that they are understandable to various stakeholders.