ACI is a the leading manager of chemical consortia fulfilling commitments to the voluntary global International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) high production volume (HPV) chemical programs. Altogether, ACI manages 62 companies within ten U.S. and global HPV chemical consortia and their commitment to compile and make publicly available a baseline set of health and environmental effects data covering 291 chemicals. Through the global collaboration of producers and users of cleaning product chemicals, data submissions under these programs demonstrate that a wealth of environmental and human safety information has been in existence for cleaning product ingredients, virtually eliminating any need for new testing and dispelling the perception that fundamental safety data were lacking on these materials. In fact, over 6,100 study summaries were prepared by ACI from existing hazard data. The HPV Chemical Challenge provided an opportunity for ACI’s members to make chemical safety information publicly available for the first time. Often, publishing studies with negative results is not feasible through peer-reviewed scientific journals and related media.

Although the efforts to compile hazard data on a global basis required additional time and resources, there has been only a very limited need for new testing in this work. Only eight of the more than 6,100 study summaries were based on new testing (about 0.13% of the total number of studies).

ACI’s participation extended beyond the basic commitments of these programs; ACI developed and applied tools to facilitate the assessment of human and environmental exposures to HPV chemicals used in cleaning products, which greatly improves the capabilities and understanding of risk-based decision-making on safe uses. ACI’s commitment to address HPV chemicals has extended beyond chemicals identified as HPV in 1990 to include some “new” HPV chemicals identified as U.S. HPVs for the first time in the 2002 update of the TSCA Inventory and the addition of some moderate volume chemicals related to categories for which work was underway. ACI developed and published processes and tools for handling use and exposure information in exposure assessments and risk assessments.

ACI and its managed consortia continue to progress towards completion of the commitments to compile and make publicly available a baseline set of health and environmental effects data for the 291 chemicals sponsored. As of June 2008, commitments for 141 chemicals have been completed.

Details on ACI’s progress toward completion of these commitments appear in an overview report (http://www.aciscience.org/docs/SDA_HPV_Progress_Report-June_08.pdf)

Visit the HPV Challenge page to view the ACI Submissions.