USEPA ECOSAR program

The ECOSAR program is used to predict the aquatic toxicity of chemicals based on their similarity of structure to chemicals for which the aquatic toxicity has been previously measured. Since 1981, the USEPA has used (Q)SARs to predict the aquatic toxicity of all new industrial chemicals (Nabholz et al. 1993 Zeeman et al. 1995). The acute toxicity of a chemical to fish (both fresh- and saltwater), water fleas... 

Integrating concentration- and effect-addition principles with (Q)SAR opens the door for (Q)SAR-based mixture assessments. As discussed above, linking interspecies correlations (Asfaw et al. 2004) with the USEPA s ECOSAR program allowed for the generation of species sensitivity distributions, hence a probabilistic estimate for aquatic community effects. Estimated HC5s for 4 chemicals were within a factor of 2 of published values, suggesting that current uncertainty factors overestimate NOECs established via data-based SSDs even SSDs derived... 

This chapter is dedicated to the memory of Vince (J. Vincent) Nabholz, who died suddenly on February 23, 2008. He was a graduate of Christian Brothers University, received a PhD from the University of Georgia, and was senior biologist and ecologist with the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC, where he served for 29 years, and where he chaired their Structure-Activity Team for the last two decades. He was the principal author of USEPA s ECOSAR computer program, which also is one of the three key elements in Persistence Bioaccumulation Toxicity (PBT), one of the most frequently used (Q)SAR tools of all time. 

Meyland WM, Howard PH. 1998. User s guide for the ECOSAR class program. North Syracuse (NY) USEPA. 

---