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The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has established the Center for Advancing Risk Assessment Science and Policy (ARASP) to promote the development and use of advanced methods and up-to-date scientific knowledge in chemical risk assessments. The Center for Advancing Risk Assessment Science and Policy will work to accelerate the development, evaluation and use weight of evidence frameworks, mode of action analysis and quantitative uncertainty methods in chemical risk assessments.

Consumers, businesses, and the government all expect chemical research, testing and assessments to be firmly based on up-to-date scientific knowledge, meet the highest of standards of scientific inquiry and be evaluated in accordance with acceptable scientific approaches.  Extensive scientific research over the last 20 years has led to a considerable increase in knowledge of how chemicals act at the molecular, cellular, and organ levels, and the manner by which such effects are dependent upon the level of exposure, but there are many challenges to adopting policies and practices that put this knowledge into use in chemical specific risk assessments.  The Center will concentrate its activities on addressing these challenges.

The Center is a self-funded group composed of chemical and product specific groups. ACC’s Chemical Products and Technology Division provides administrative management. The focus of the Center is broad and, while it will rely on chemical-specific examples, the Center will not conduct advocacy for any specific chemical.

Americans must have confidence in how the federal government regulates chemicals to protect public health and safety.  Through the Center for Advancing Risk Assessment Science and Policy, the chemical industry will continue to promote sound scientific practices and continue to provide transparent and robust information to government regulators help assure the safety of all chemicals in production for their end uses.

Relevant Links:

A Path Forward for the Chemical Industry and Chemical Products Sectors to Meet the Challenges of a Changing Risk Assessment Paradigm
Chemical risk assessment is on the verge of undergoing rapid and momentous change. The scientific and product stewardship sectors of the chemical industry—and industrial sectors that rely on the products of chemistry—need to work together to proactively broaden and deepen the discussion within the scientific and risk assessment policy sectors on mode of action and nonlinear/thresholds and advocate for the use of the best available scientific information for chemical risk assessments and regulatory policies. Click on the link above gain a better understanding of Center’s plans and activities and learn about opportunities for joining or partnering with the Center.
 
A Cross-Disciplinary Mode-of-Action Based Approach to Examining Dose-Response and Thresholds
The ILSI Research Foundation has just completed the initial phase of a project focused on enhancing opportunities to more fully incorporate knowledge and data regarding biological thresholds and dose-response into risk assessments. A Working Group comprised of international experts drawn from academia, government and industry just published a series of five papers in a free access, special issue of Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition (Volume 49, September 2009). “This approach illuminates the connection between the processes occurring at the level of fundamental biology and the outcomes observed at the individual and population levels. Thus, it promotes an evidence-based approach for using mechanistic data to reduce reliance on default assumptions, to quantify variability, and to better characterize biological thresholds.” Click on the link above access the papers Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition.

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