Does The Standard Toxicological Testing Paradigm for Industrial Chemicals Apply to Screening for Children’s Health Risks?

Questions have been raised concerning whether standard toxicological testing paradigms for characterizing hazards are applicable for children. In this paper, the standard toxicological testing paradigm for industrial chemicals 1 is examined. The analysis includes examination of the basic principles and elements of hazard characterization methodology based on animal toxicity data, examination of the characteristics of the standard toxicity tests that apply to assessing haz- ards of industrial chemicals to children's health, and an appraisal of specific industrial chemical hazard characterizations developed by USEPA covering more than 200 substances (High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge datasets 2 ) with re- gard to their relevancy for use in screening for potential risks to children's health. We conclude that the standard toxicity tests used for industrial chemicals that comprise the USEPA's HPV Challenge provide adequate information for develop- ing screening-level hazard characterizations for children's health, and when coupled with child-specific exposure informa- tion should provide adequate screening-level risk evaluations for children. Key Word: Children's health, HPV chemical, hazard characterization, toxicity testing, industrial chemicals.