Chemical Hazard Data Availability Study

High Production Volume (HPV) Chemicals and SIDS Testing

Of the 3,000 chemicals that the US imports or produces at more than 1 million lbs/yr, a new EPA analysis finds that 43% of these high production volume chemicals have no testing data on basic toxicity and only seven percent have a full set of basic test data. This lack of test data compromises the public's right to know about the chemicals that are found in their environment, their homes, their workplace, and the products that they buy. Industry must do more to ensure that basic information is available on every high-production chemical they manufacture.

Background:

There are six basic tests which have been internationally agreed to for screening high production volume (HPV) chemicals for toxicity. The tests agreed to under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Screening Information Data Set (OECD/SIDS) program are: acute toxicity; chronic toxicity; developmental/reproductive toxicity; mutagenicity; ecotoxicity and environmental fate.

EPA found that approximately 55% of TRI chemicals have had full SIDS testing, while only 7% of other chemicals have full test data. EPA also looked at a set of 491 chemicals used by children and families in consumer products. Only 25% of these chemicals have full screening data. EPA cannot begin to judge the hazards and risks of such consumer chemicals without basic information, and in fact substantially more detailed and exhaustive testing is needed to assess these high exposure chemicals.

It is clear that companies need to do more to address this problem. Of the 830 companies making HPV chemicals in the US, 148 companies have NO SIDS data available on their chemicals; an additional 459 companies sell products for which, on average, half or less of SIDS tests are available. Only 21 companies (or 3% of the 830 companies) have all SIDS tests available for their chemicals. The basic set of test data costs about $200,000 per chemical. ( http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/chemtest/hazchem.htm )

The European Commissions list of fragrance chemicals was cross referenced with the high production volume chemicals lists from the FDA. The following table lists the fragrance chemicals that are produced or imported in the US at a volume of 1 million pounds a year. The SIDS column indicates how many of the six basic testing data are available for the chemical. The status of those with * are not available.

The Flavor and Fragrance HPV Consortia has agreed to provide basic toxicity data on 56 fragrance materials that are on the HPV list.  (Note, these are large pdf files and require Acrobat Reader)

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