Scientific Committee for Toxicity

Europe s controversy over soft PVC toys looks set to continue after EU health experts rejected the best available method for assessing the dangers to children. The so-called Dutch migration test was designed to mimic the way phthalate softeners leak out of PVC when it is sucked or chewed. Manufacturers had hoped the EU s Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment would accept the method as a standard test for phthalate migration, allowing it to be used across the EU, but the committee ruled that the Dutch test was unreliable. It also rejected a similar test developed in the UK, and issued a list of changes that would have to be made before either... 

The TDI values settle by the EFSA in 2005 (Table 3) were different from those calculated by the Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment (CSTEE) in 1998 [134] based on the phthalate migration from soft PVC toys and child care articles, and the available toxicity studies on animals at that time [117, 122, 135], with the following values DBP (TDI of 100 pg/kg b.w./day), BBP (TDI of 200 pg/kg b.w./day), and DiDP (TDI of 200 pg/kg b.w./day), but they... 

CSTEE (1999) DG XXIV Scientific Committee for Toxicity and Ecotoxicity and the Environment Opinion on revised proposal for a list of Priority substances in the context of the water framework directive (COMMs Procedure) prepared by the Frauenhofer-Institute, Germany,. Final report opinion adopted at the 11 CSTEE plenary meeting on 28 of September 1999... 

CSTEE (1998) Opinion on Some Practical Implications of the Proposed Modifications to the Water Framework Directive (Annex V). Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment Opinion Adopted by Written Procedure, 5 June, 1998 CSTEE, Brussels. 

Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Envbonment Clean Water Act (1972)... 

United States Environmental Protection Agency, Reference Dose (RfD) Description and Use in Health Risk Assessments. Background Document 1A (March 15, 1993) internet http //www.epa.gov/iris/rfd.htm. Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment, Opinion on Phthalate migration from soft PVC toys and child-care articles - opinion expressed at the 6th CSTEE plenary meeting, Brussels, 26/27 November 1998, internet http //europa.eu.int/comm/food/fs/sc/sct/outl9 en.html. 

The highest scientific body of the European Union, the EU Scientific Committee for Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment (CSTEE), concluded in 1998 on the basis of an extensive review of the available data, that there are safe migration limits for phthalates. In a scientific opinion, the Committee stated that phthalate plasticizers can safely be used in the production on soft PVC toys, provided that migration limits are observed. It suggested guideline migration limits for each of six phthalate plasticizers. 

Scientific Committee on Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment (SCTEE). Directorate General for Consumer Policy and Consumer Health Protection, Brussels, 1999. 

Sources Shrimpton, 1997 Institute of Medicine, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001 Scientific Committee for Food, 1993 where two figures are shown for vitamin A, the lower is for women and the higher is for men (Table 2.5). for niacin and nicotinic acid, the lower values are for sustained reiease preparations the EU upper level of 25 mg of vitamin Be was proposed by the Scientific Committee for Food Opinion, 2000 and the EU upper level of 200 xg of vitamin B12 was set because of the possible presence of inactive corrinoids in pharmaceutical preparations, not because of toxicity of the vitamin itself. 

At EU level the Scientific Committee on Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment (CSTEE) has established standard protocols for the extraction of phthalates from plasticized PVC toys. In 1999 the European Commission banned the use of DEHP in PVC toys and other easily mouthed items intended for children under 3 years of age as a precaution against the uncertain impact of phthalates on young children [127]. 

The described symptoms may not always have relevance for human exposure. Nevertheless, the EU s Scientific Committee for Food (SCF) has recently published its risk assessment for dioxins and the PCBs related to the dioxins, and state that a weekly intake dose of 7 pg of dioxin/kg of body weight (or lower) is tolerable. The Environmental Protection Agency s Science Advisory Board in the U.S. also concluded that dioxins might give health effects at levels close to background exposures (see Kaiser, 2000). One of the problems is to decide if its toxicity has a threshold, and as yet, it has not been possible to agree on a safe dose. 

Weingand, K. et al. 1996. Harmonization of animal clinical pathology testing in toxicity and safety studies. The Joint Scientific Committee for harmonization of clinical pathology testing. Fundamental and Applied Toxicology 29 198-201. 

The evaluation made by the EU Scientific Committee for Food (SCF) uses a risk assessment approach. The potential danger represented by consnmer ingestion of these food contaminants is considered, and the amonnt of toxicity data that is required depends on the level of exposure. The following criteria are taken into account by the SCF [2] ... 

We are told that a Scientific Committee of the European Commission has addressed toxicity concerns about PVC plasticised with diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) when used in certain medical applications. It has reached conclusions which differ from those reached by some other organisations. This article discusses the basis for these opinions in detail. 7 refs. 

James N. Pitts, Jr., is a Research Chemist at the University of California, Irvine, and Professor Emeritus from the University of California, Riverside. He was Professor of Chemistry (1954-1988) and cofounder (1961) and Director of the Statewide Air Pollution Research Center (1970-1988) at the University of California, Riverside. His research has focused on the spectroscopy, kinetics, mechanisms, and photochemistry of species involved in a variety of homogeneous and heterogeneous atmospheric reactions, including those associated with the formation and fate of mutagenic and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic compounds. He is the author or coauthor of more than 300 research publications and three books Atmospheric Chemistry Fundamentals and Experimental Techniques, Graduate School in the Sciences—Entrance, Survival and Careers, and Photochemistry. He has been coeditor of two series, Advances in Environmental Science and Technology and Advances in Photochemistry. He served on a number of panels in California, the United States, and internationally. These included several National Academy of Science panels and service as Chair of the State of California s Scientific Review Panel for Toxic Air Contaminants and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Acid Deposition. 

Moore JA (1995) An assessment of lithium using the IEHR evaluative process for assessing human development and reproductive toxicity of agents. IEHR Expert Scientific Committee. Reprod Toxicol, 9 175-210. 

Dr. Bidlack is past president of the Food Safety Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology, served on the International Life Sciences Institute Committee on Nutrition and Food Safety, and held the position of scientific advisor for the subcommittee on iron and health and the subcommittee on apoptosis related to fumonisin toxicity. He has also served as a member of the board for the Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists and actively contributed to the creation of the national certification exam. In addition, he is serving on the editorial board and as book editor for the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. He served as an editor of two books on phytochemicals published by Technomics and four others published by CRC Press the seventh in the series is in press. He continues to review grants for several agencies and universities. Currently, Dr. Bidlack is serving as a member of the board of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. 

A survey in 2000, carried out in Los Angeles by a group at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, found a link with bladder cancer. It involved 1541 people with this condition and they were compared to 897 people who were not so afflicted. Adjustments were made to take into account smokers, who are liable to be more at risk of this disease in any case, and it found that those who used permanent hair dyes every month had a slightly higher risk of bladder cancer, especially if they had used hair dyes continuously for 15 or more years. Hairdressers had an even higher risk. This revelation prompted the Scientific Committee on Cosmetic Products and Non-Food Products ofthe EU (SCCNFP) to issue a discussion paper in February 2002. This was followed in December that year by a requirement that manufacturers must submit by July 2005 all their data on hair dyes together with studies to assess their safety in terms of cancer and toxicity. The outcome of this has yet to be published, but it will take the form of an approved list of hair dyes which will be issued in 2007. 

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