A chemistry test for public safety

An estimated 80,000 chemical substances currently find their way into our environment through industrial and agricultural waste, as well as through food additives, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and personal care products. But even as companies continue to produce new chemical compounds at a rapid clip, toxicologists and state and federal regulators agree that conventional approaches to testing chemical safety have significant limitations. "When we say chemicals in the environment are safe, that's only within the context of what has been studied," said Patrick Allard , assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. "But what has been studied is only the tip of the iceberg — there is still a great deal of uncertainty." For one thing, he explained, in the United States approximately 60,000 chemicals were grandfathered in, exempting them from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) testing by the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Moreover, Allard noted, while chemical companies are now required to test new compounds before introducing them into the environment, the limits of the old toxicology testing tools leave many unanswered questions about their safety. "The tests that currently exist can accurately determine whether chemical compounds have the potential to cause genetic damage or cancer," Allard said. "But when it comes to determining the effects on more complex concerns like reproduction and aging, this is where the technology lags.