Basic Toxicity

Cefas Building, Assessing and Standardising Information on the Atlantic Coasts (BASIC) Toxicity Database... 

The BASIC toxicity database contains information on the aquatic toxicity of a number of hazardous substances. In many cases, the information is given as some sort of safe level such as UK Environmental Quality Standards (EQSs) or the national/international equivalent. For substances for which no such levels have been set, a brief literature review was performed in order to produce an environmental hazard/risk assessment. 

ACD/Tox Suite is a collection of software modules that predict probabilities for basic toxicity endpoints. Predictions are made from chemical structure and based upon large validated databases and QSAR models, in combination with expert knowledge of organic chemistry and toxicology. ToxSuite modules for Acute Toxicity, Genotoxicity, Skin Irritation, and Aquatic Toxicity have been used. 

RTECS number Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances number is published by NIOSH and present basic toxicity data on thousands of materials. 

We have seen that many different factors can contribute to chemical hazard in the workplace. The degree of hazard, however, is fundamentally determined by two factors the basic toxicity of the agent concerned, that is, its intrinsic capacity to damage or affect biological tissue and the severity of the exposure, or what is sometimes called the dose-response relationship. The duration of the exposure, of course, must also be considered. 

Basic toxicity has been identified from careful observation and experimentation in the workplace and in the lab. Over the years, from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and probably long before that, we have learned that exposure to certain substances can cause bodily harm. Hippocrates, the founder of medicine in Ancient Greece, described the occurrence of lead poisoning among lead miners and metal workers as long ago as 400 B.C. The Roman historian, Pliny, described in his encyclopedia in the second half of the first century A.D., the dangers of mercury poison-... 

Screening drug molecules for suitability for use in humans is often subjected to certain basic toxicity or workability solutions to reduce the cost of screening. The human body... 

Eastman Kodak Co FYI-OTS-0385-0329, Seq D. Basic Toxicity ofBis(Methoxyethyl) Phthalate from Eastman Kodak Co to Document Control Officer. Washington, DC, Office of Toxic Substances, US Environmental Protection Agency, 1985... 

Ecobichon, D.J. The Basic Toxicity Testing 2nd Edition, CRC Press, LLC., Boca Raton, FL, 1997. 

This chapter is concerned with the sampling, isolation, separation, and measurement of toxicants, including bioassay methods. Bioassay does not measure toxic effects rather, it is the quantitation of the relative effect of a substance on a test organism as compared with the effect of a standard preparation of a basic toxicant. Although bioassay has many drawbacks, particularly lack of specificity, it can provide a rapid analysis of the relative potency of toxicants in environmental samples. 

Chemical data (e.g., physical and chemical properties, structureactivity relationships, and environmental fate and transport), basic toxicity data, and pharmacokinetic data (information on absorption, distribution (including placental and lactational transfer), metabolism, and excretion) should be reviewed. These data are particularly important because reproductive and developmental effects are interpreted in the context of general toxicity data in humans or experimental animals. Pharmacokinetic data for both animals and humans can be helpful in extrapolating exposure levels from one species to another. 

The section on general toxicological and biological parameters reviews and summarizes chemical data and basic toxicity information available on the agent of interest and reviews data on absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion in humans and experimental animals. 

RTECS, compiled by NIOSH (U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), is a comprehensive database of basic toxicity information and toxic-effects data on more than 100,000 chemicals. 

Table 4.1 lists a number of toxicity tests currently available from a variety of standard sources. This table is not inclusive since there are more specialized tests for specific location or situations. Many more methods exist, some of which are derivatives of basic toxicity tests. More important than memorization of each test procedure is a good understanding of the general thrust of the various toxicity tests, methods of data analysis, and experimental design. 

Of the approximately 80,000 chemicals that are in commercial use in the United States, even basic toxicity information is missing for nearly 75% of the top 3000 high production volume species. Essentially nothing is known about the toxicities of mixtures of these chemicals. 

The United States of America in 1998 announced the Chemical Right-to-Know (RTK) Initiative46 which was the US government response to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study that found that very little basic toxicity information is publicly available on most of the HPV chemicals made and used in the USA. It should be noted that the US definition of UPV chemicals is different from that used in the rest of the world, as the US definition is a chemical produced in or imported into the US A in amounts... 

A number of changes took place in the Sixties that will influence the marketing of agricultural chemicals in the Seventies among them are the expansion of the number of producers, many of whom are in both pesticides and fertilizers, the decline in the number of farms and the increasing size of the farm enterprise the expansion of services to the farmer by retail outlets. Opportunities in the product area include selective systemics to replace products that have become ineffective, new systemic soil nematocides, new systemic foliar fungicides for cereals and fruits. Sales of basic toxicants at the manufacturers9 level will reach 700 million in 1968, over 1 billion by the mid-Seventies. 

The growth rate of pesticide sales over the past five years has been about 14% a year. It is estimated that sales of basic toxicants at the manufacturers level will reach about 700 million in 1968 (I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Based on a conservative growth pattern, say 10% per year, by the mid-Seventies pesticide sales would be over 1 billion (Figure 1). 

This very nseful regulation, after more than a qnarter century of practice does not give sufficient information. EPA has selected a group of High Production Volume, HPV, chemicals which constitutes 2,863 organic chemicals produced or imported at or above 1 million pounds per year in the United States. These chemicals have a large impact on health and safety becanse of their widespread application. EPA s analysis found that no basic toxicity information, i.e., neither hrrman health nor environmental toxicity, is publicly available for 43% of the high volume chemicals manufactured in the US and that a full set of basic toxicity information is available for only 7% of these chemicals. 

The lack of this basic toxicity information on most high volume chemicals is a serious issue for risk assessment, safeguarding children s health, expanding the publie s right-to-know, and promoting the pollution prevention ethic which are important EPA initiatives. 

The Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS) is a comprehensive database of basic toxicity irrformation for over 150,000 chemical substances including prescription and nonprescription drags, food additives, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, solvents, diluents, chemical wastes, reaction products of chemical waste, and substances used in both irrdustrial and household situations. Reports of the toxic effects of each compotmd are cited. In addition to toxic effects and general... 

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