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An approach to scoring of toxic chemicals for environmental effects
Author(s) -
Welch Justine L.,
Ross Robert H.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1002/etc.5620010111
Subject(s) - environmental risk assessment , environmental toxicology , environmental science , risk assessment , hazard analysis , environmental hazard , environmental safety , computer science , environmental impact assessment , hazard , organic chemicals , risk analysis (engineering) , environmental chemistry , toxicity , reliability engineering , chemistry , ecology , engineering , environmental health , business , biology , human health , medicine , computer security , organic chemistry
The systematic scoring of chemicals is a tool to assist in the consistent comparison and ordering of the universe of industrial chemicals. Scoring at an early stage of assessment could identify most of the chemicals that have a high probability for requiring review for possible control or testing. This report describes the results of a three‐day workshop held in Washington, D.C., August 13–15, 1979, to develop a system to select chemicals for preliminary assessments according to their hazard to the environment. The system combines environmental release and distribution potential with mobility and persistence scores in the three environmental media, air, soil, and water. The components of the environmental exposure score are then combined with toxicity by using multipliers (3x, 2x, or 1x) which are assigned on the basis of the concentration at which an adverse effect in environmental species is observed. The system requires minimal information inputs, relies on expert professional judgement and is recognized as an initial phase of selecting candidates for additional assessment.