Pollution Prevention 101

Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA has broad authority to issue regulations designed to gather health/safety and exposure information on, require testing of, and control exposure to chemical substances and mixtures. Drugs, cosmetics, foods, food additives, pesticides, and nuclear materials are exempt from TSCA.

The ATSDR ToxFAQs™ is a series of summaries about hazardous substances. Information for this series is excerpted from the ATSDR Toxicological Profiles. Each fact sheet serves as a quick and easy to understand guide. Answers are provided to the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about exposure to hazardous substances found around hazardous waste sites and the effects of exposure on human health.

The ATSDR ToxGuides™ are quick reference guides providing information such as chemical and physical properties, sources of exposure, routes of exposure, minimal risk levels, children's health, and health effects. They also discuss how the substance might interact in the environment. They were developed by the ATSDR Division of Toxicology and and Human Health Sciences. Information is excerpted from the corresponding toxicological profiles.

Toxicological Profiles (Tox Profiles) are a unique compilation of toxicological information on a given hazardous substance. Each peer-reviewed Tox Profile reflects a comprehensive and extensive evaluation, summary, and interpretation of available toxicological and epidemiological information on a substance.

The Chemical Assessment Clustering Engine (ChemACE) is designed to assist in the review and prioritization of large inventories of chemicals and to facilitate read across and data gap filling for untested substances.

ChemHAT, the Chemical Hazard and Alternatives Toolbox, is a database designed to offer up easy to use information that we can use to protect ourselves, our families and our co-workers against the harm that chemicals can cause.

The Chemical Screening Tool for Exposures and Environmental Releases (ChemSTEER) is a computer-based software program that can be used to estimate workplace exposures and environmental releases for chemicals manufactured and used in industrial/commercial settings.

Provides easy access to thousands of documents, including hazard characterizations, alternative assessments, test data submitted to EPA, and TSCA regulatory actions. Includes summary information with links to more detailed information, e.g., the submitted study or Federal Register notice.

The Exposure and Fate Assessment Screening Tool (E-FAST 2014) provides estimates of the concentrations of chemicals released to air, surface water, landfills, and consumer products. Estimates provided are potential inhalation, dermal and ingestion dose rates resulting from releases of chemicals. Modeled estimates of concentrations and doses are designed to reasonably overestimate exposures, for use in an exposure assessment in the absence of or with reliable monitoring data.

The Ecological Structure Activity Relationships (ECOSAR) Class Program is a computerized predictive system that estimates aquatic toxicity. The program estimates a chemical's acute (short-term) toxicity and chronic (long-term or delayed) toxicity to aquatic organisms, such as fish, aquatic invertebrates, and aquatic plants, by using computerized Structure Activity Relationships (SARs).

The Estimation Programs Interface (EPI) SuiteTM is a Windows-based suite of physical/chemical property and environmental fate estimation programs developed by the EPA’s Office of Pollution Prevention Toxics and Syracuse Research Corporation (SRC). EPI Suite uses a single input to run the following programs: KOWWIN™, AOPWIN™, HENRYWIN™, MPBPWIN™, BIOWIN™, BioHCwin, KOCWIN™, WSKOWWIN™, WATERNT™, BCFBAF™, HYDROWIN™, KOAWIN and AEROWIN™, and the fate models WVOLWIN™, STPWIN™ and LEV3EPI™. ECOSAR™, which estimates eco-toxicity, is also included in EPI Suite™.

The NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) program helps employees, employers, and unions recognize and control health hazards in their workplace. For on-site evaluations, findings are published online (without company or employee names) in NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Reports. Reports are searchable by keyword, state, industry category and subcategory, or health effect.

The NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards (NPG) informs workers, employers, and occupational health professionals about workplace chemicals and their hazards. The NPG gives general industrial hygiene information for hundreds of chemicals/classes. The NPG clearly presents key data for chemicals or substance groupings (such as cyanides, fluorides, manganese compounds) that are found in workplaces. The guide offers key facts, but does not give all relevant data. The NPG helps users recognize and control workplace chemical hazards.Also available as a downloadable PDF or mobile app.

The non-cancer screening approach provides users with a procedure of identifying health effects data for the chemical of interest from various public databases and gives insight into various chemical classes associated with health effects of concern.

The OncoLogic™ model is an expert system that mimics the judgment of human experts by following sets of knowledge rules based on studies of how chemicals cause cancer in animals and humans. OncoLogic™ asks for chemical and use information from the user, and following knowledge rules incorporated into the system, uses the responses to construct an estimation of the potential of chemicals to cause cancer.

This chemical inventory is OSHA's premier one-stop shop for occupational chemical information. It compiles information from several government agencies and organizations. Information available on the pages includes chemical identification and physical properties; exposure limits; sampling information, and additional resources.

Chemicals phased out of production, such as PFOA and PFOS, are often replaced by similar chemicals with less research on their toxicity. To address these potentially regrettable substitutes, the PFAS-Tox Database allows quick access to health and toxicology studies on PFAS chemicals that are less well known than PFOA and PFOS.

EPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model integrates data from multiple sources to help provide context to toxic chemical waste management activities from a relative risk-based perspective. RSEI model results can help policy makers, researchers, and communities establish priorities for further investigation and to look at changes in potential health-related impacts over time.

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Chemical Substance Inventory contains all existing chemical substances manufactured, processed, or imported in the United States that do not qualify for an exemption or exclusion under TSCA.

TRI-CHIP provides access to toxicity information for chemicals on the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) list, pulling from multiple data sources. This downloadable Microsoft Access database allows you to customize searches across a single chemical, a set of specific chemicals, or a TRI chemical category of interest.

The FDA has published a variety of contaminant levels for poisonous or deleterious substances in human food in various guidance documents and regulations for industry. For ease of reference, the Chemical Contaminants Transparency Tool provides a consolidated list of these levels. Contaminant levels listed in the transparency tool include tolerances, action levels, guidance levels, derived intervention levels, recommended maximum levels, and advisory levels. Tolerances and action levels are defined in 21 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) parts 109 and 509. Other types of contaminant levels are not defined in the regulation but have been used to advise industry on levels of contamination that may pose a health risk or may be avoidable through good manufacturing practices.