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INNOVATIVE RESEARCH FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
www.epa.gov/research
Chemical Safety for Sustainability National Research Program
Chemicals are integral to the
American economy and provide
key building blocks for the many
products that benefit society.
Sustainable development can yield
unprecedented benefits to society
today without compromising the
health and welfare of future
generations. Smart new strategies
are needed to make decisions that
protect public health and promote
sustainable chemical design and
use.
Chemicals fuel innovation—
surface coatings that make
buildings more resistant to wear,
detergents that allow energy-
efficient laundering, preservatives
that keep cosmetics and foods
fresh. However, depending on
their use, chemicals may have
harmful impacts on human health
and the environment. For
instance, evidence is mounting that
some chemicals found in everyday
products may disrupt the endocrine
system and affect the development
of children and sensitive
ecological species. Novel
information and methods are
needed to make informed, timely
decisions about thousands of
chemicals in commerce.
The U.S. EPA's Chemical Safety
for Sustainability Research
Program (CSS) is designed to
infuse 21st century science into
Agency decisions aimed at
reducing risks associated with
exposure to chemicals in
commerce, the environment.
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Disruptive Innovation in Chemical Evaluation
products and food. This science
will enable the Agency to: address
impacts of existing chemicals,
anticipate impacts of new
chemicals, and evaluate complex
interactions of chemical and
biological systems to promote
proactive action and sustainable
innovation.
The Science Challenges
Chemical Evaluation:
Thousands of chemicals have not
been evaluated and new chemicals
are continually being developed
and introduced into commerce.
CSS is advancing cutting-edge
methods to provide data for risk-
based evaluation of both existing
chemicals and emerging materials.
Life Cycle Analytics:
Chemical substitutions and other
alternatives designed to solve one
environmental health problem may
have unintended consequences.
CSS is exploring new ways to
evaluate risks to human and
ecological health across the
lifecycle of manufactured
chemicals, materials and products.
CSS methods will efficiently
evaluate alternatives and support
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Con tin ued from fron t
more sustainable chemical design
and use.
Complex System Science:
The real-world is inherently more
complicated than current
experimental models of toxicology
can depict. CSS research adopts a
systems-based approach to
examine complex chemical-
biological interactions and predict
potential for adverse outcomes
resulting from exposures to
chemicals.
Translation & Delivery:
Decision-makers need
demonstrated solutions to translate
new information into action. CSS
promotes web-based tools, data,
and applications to support
chemical safety evaluations and
related decisions. CSS engages
Agency partners and stakeholders
to ground truth the transparency,
access, relevance, and applicability
of our research.
How CSS Research is
Making a Difference
CSS research is transforming
chemical evaluation through
groundbreaking research,
translation, and tools such as:
CSS is accelerating the pace of
data-driven chemical evaluations.
EPA's high-throughput toxicity
research effort ToxCast uses
automated chemical screening
technologies to measure changes
in biological activity that may
suggest potential for hazardous
effects. Coupled with related high-
throughput exposure estimations
from ExpoCast. this multi-year
effort is generating and sharing an
unprecedented volume of exposure
and toxicology data and
knowledge transparently.
What We Do:
Build Knowledge Infrastructure. Make information publicly accessible.
Combine different types of data in new ways to characterize impacts of
chemicals to human health and the environment.
Develop Tools for Chemical Evaluation. Develop and apply rapid, efficient,
and effective chemical safety evaluation methods.
Promote Complex Systems Understanding. Investigate emergent properties
in complex chemical-biological systems by probing how disturbances and
changes in one part affect the others and the system as a whole.
Translate and Actively Deliver. Demonstrate application of CSS science
and tools to anticipate, minimize, and solve environmental health problems.
CSS is enabling sustainable
environmental and public health
decisions. The Chemical/Product
Categories Database (CPCat)
compiles information on chemicals
found in consumer products. This
new publicly available database
maps over 40,000 chemicals to a
set of terms categorizing their use
or function for high level exposure
evaluation. CSS is also working on
developing lifecycle assessment
tools that incorporate impacts of
human exposures to environmental
chemicals.
The Web-based Interspecies
Correlation Estimation (WeblCE)
application estimates acute toxicity
in aquatic and terrestrial
organisms. The Markov Chain
Nest Productivity Model
(MCnest) quantitatively estimates
the impact of pesticide-use
scenarios on reproductive success
of bird populations. Together these
two tools are informing ecological
risk assessments, in particular for
endangered species.
CSS is shifting the paradigm of
toxicity characterization from
apical endpoints to "tipping
points." Using systems science,
CSS identifies early indicators of
adversity or biological harm
associated with chemical
exposures, and builds predictive
models that are more public health
protective. The Adverse Outcome
Pathway Wiki (AOP-Wiki).
created through a joint venture
between the European
Commission and EPA, is a web-
enabled and publicly accessible
repository that stimulates and
captures new and existing crowd-
sourced AOP knowledge from the
global scientific community.
CSS tools are being applied to
support sustainable innovation of
chemicals and emerging
materials. The iCSS Dashboard
provides a publicly accessible
interactive tool to explore rapid,
automated chemical screening data
on 1,800 chemicals found in
consumer and industrial products.
Users of the iCSS Dashboard can
perform basic data and chemical
selection, as well as simple data
exploration in a seamless
environment.
More Information
EPA Chemical Safety Research:
http: //epa. gov/re search/chemicalsc
ience/
Contact:
Jeff Frithsen, Ph.D.
Interim National Program Director
frithsen .j eff@epa.gov
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Office of Research and Development
January 2017

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