HPV challenge

The ACC is proud of the voluntary High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program. This program has produced more publicly available information on more chemicals in less time than any government initiative.
Media Contact: Tiffany Harrington
Phone: 703-741-5583

The business of chemistry is moving above and beyond government requirements for public access to health and environmental information about chemicals. The products of chemistry are evaluated for safety through a combination of broad governmental authority and progressive voluntary initiatives, such as the High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program.
 
In 1998, the chemical industry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental Defense and others developed this unprecedented voluntary initiative to make uniform health and environmental hazard-screening information publicly available on HPV chemicals – those produced or imported in quantities greater than one million pounds annually. HPV chemicals represent more than 90 percent of the U.S. market for commercial chemicals by volume.  More than 400 sponsoring manufacturers volunteered to provide this information on approximately 2,222 HPV chemicals to create a robust database.

The global chemical industry, through the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), launched a global initiative on HPV chemicals in 1998.  Through this commitment, the chemical industry, in partnership with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and its member countries, provides harmonized, internationally-agreed data on the intrinsic hazards of and the initial hazard assessments for approximately 1,000 HPV substances.

In March 2005, the chemical industry announced that it is extending its work on HPV chemicals – calling it the Extended HPV Program or EHPV. The EHPV Program broadens the initiative in two ways: first, it calls on companies to provide health and environmental information on 574 “new” chemicals that have met the one million pound threshold after the start of the original Challenge Program, and it increases the scope of information collected for all HPV chemicals in that companies will provide use and exposure information  chemicals in both the original Challenge and the EHPV Programs.

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