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USER GUIDE: ACUTE TO CHRONIC ESTIMATION
Citation:
Mayer Jr., F L., K. Sun, G. Lee, M. R. Ellersieck, AND G. F. Krause. USER GUIDE: ACUTE TO CHRONIC ESTIMATION. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-98/152, 1999.
Impact/Purpose:
The ACE software package contains two statistical methods for predicting chronic lethality of chemicals to aquatic organisms from acute toxicity test data. The package was cooperatively developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (GulfEcology Division, NHEERL, ORD) and the University of Missouri-Columbia (Agricultural Experiment Station).
Description:
Acute and chronic toxicity testing plays a major role in ecological risk assessment requirements involved in several environmental laws. Chronic toxicity tests commonly include the measurement of long-term effects of a contaminant on the survival, growth, and reproduction of test organisms. Such studies generally are expensive, high-risk investigations, sometimes requiring months to a year to conduct. Consequently, development of alternative estimation methods that provide similar information on chronic toxicity with less effort and expense is highly desirable. The Acute to Chronic Estimation (ACE) software application involves a major advancement in the area of ecological risk assessment and provides a reliable tool and technical basis to improve chronic prediction assessment for hazards. The ACE software package contains two statistical methods for predicting chronic lethality of chemicals to aquatic organisms from acute toxicity test data. The package was cooperatively developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Gulf Ecology Division, NHEERL, ORD) and the University of Missouri-Columbia (Agricultural Experiment Station). Two articles describing the scientific basis and explaining the two methods were published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.