You are here:
Creation of a Curated Aquatic Toxicology Database: EnviroTox
Citation:
Connors, K., A. Beasley, M. Barron, S. Belanger, M. Bonnell, J. Brill, D. de Zwart, A. Kienzler, J. Krailler, R. Otter, J. Phillips, AND M. Embry. Creation of a Curated Aquatic Toxicology Database: EnviroTox. ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY AND CHEMISTRY. Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Pensacola, FL, 38(5):1062-1073, (2019). https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4382
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of this paper is to report on the methods used to develop the worlds largest curated aquatic toxicology database, and its content, structure, and utility. The impact of the paper is that it will introduce the world to this database, which can be used in international risk assessments to predict concentrations of chemicals that can be hazardous to aquatic organisms.
Description:
Flexible, rapid, and predictive approaches that do not require the use of large numbers of vertebrate test animals are essential, as the chemical universe remains largely untested. Development of robust new approach methodologies (NAMs) and non-testing approaches requires the use of existing information via curated, integrated datasets. The ecological threshold of toxicological concern (ecoTTC) represents one such NAM that can predict a conservative, de minimis toxicity value for chemicals with little or no information available. For the creation of an ecoTTC tool a large, diverse environmental dataset was developed from multiple sources, with harmonization and characterization steps to ensure that the information could be effectively organized and mined. The resulting EnviroTox database (www.envirotoxdatabase.org) contains 91,217 aquatic toxicity records representing 1,563 species, and 4,016 unique chemical CAS numbers. Chemical-specific information is also linked to each record and includes physical chemical information, chemical descriptors, and mode of action classifications. Toxicity data is associated with the physical chemistry data, mode of action classifications, and curated taxonomic information for the organisms tested. The EnviroTox platform also includes three analysis tools: a predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) calculator, and ecoTTC distribution tool, and a chemical toxicity distribution (CTD) tool. Although the EnviroTox database and tools were originally developed to support ecoTTC analysis and development, it has broader applicability to the field of ecological risk assessment.
