New applications in EPA’s ECOTOX Knowledge System: Assimilating relative potencies of metals across chemical and biological species from literature-based toxicity effects data.
Citation:
Hoff, D., J. Olker, C. Elonen, AND C. LaLone. New applications in EPA’s ECOTOX Knowledge System: Assimilating relative potencies of metals across chemical and biological species from literature-based toxicity effects data. SETAC North America, Minneapolis, MN, November 12 - 16, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
Toxicity of metals in field settings can vary widely among ionic chemical species and across biological receptors. Thus, a challenge often found in developing TRVs for the risk assessment of metals is identifying the most appropriate metal and biological species combinations for risk characterization. Risk assessors and researchers working with metals in contaminated media need an efficient tool to review existing literature effects data in developing the most appropriate assessment and measurement endpoints for their ecological settings. This presentation will demonstrate the utility of new and improved tools available on EPA’s ECOTOX Knowledge Base website that will allow end users to visually filter ecological effects information and identify those ecotoxicity data most applicable for the risk assessor or researcher needs.
Description:
Toxicity of metals in field settings can vary widely among ionic chemical species and across biological receptors. Thus, a challenge often found in developing TRVs for the risk assessment of metals is identifying the most appropriate metal and biological species combinations for risk characterization. In the problem formulation stage, investigators formulate the measurement and assessment endpoints most applicable to the environmental setting in question. A key step in this process is gathering toxicity data from literature to help identify relative sensitivities of biological species potentially found in trophic positions of the assessment’s conceptual model as well as the potencies of metal species potentially identified for concern. While the USEPA’s ECOTOX database has been online for several years providing curated literature-based toxicity effects data for organic and inorganic chemicals in ecological receptors, recent advances in the online tool have been completed to allow users to more easily review toxicity effects profiles for problem formulation purposes, and ultimately provide a source of toxicity data for developing dose-response models in TRV development. Filtering of nearly 180,000 records from 19 groups of metals and metalloids is now available through visualization tools to explore results from 406 chemicals, 4262 species, 24 effect groups with 1795 effect measurements. As a further example, there are 13 different chemicals associated with cadmium with effects data from 1659 species illustrating 24 effect groups and 698 effect measurements. The new and improved ECOTOX platform will allow risk assessors and researchers to visualize, identify and download curated effects data that best match exposure scenarios in conceptual models, help define the most appropriate assessment and measurement endpoints and be a source of toxicity data for TRV development.