U.S. NTP meetings on alternative toxicological methods

U.S. National Toxicology Program’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Alternative Toxicological Methods holds meetings on September 5-6 and September 19-20, 2018; registration for first meeting now open

CLARITY-BPA: Update and critical voices

HuffPost article addresses draft CLARITY-BPA report, various approaches to toxicity testing by regulatory and academic scientists, impact on future chemical risk assessments

EFSA updates OpenFoodTox database

European Food Safety Authority updates its OpenFoodTox database on chemical hazards with more chemicals and health-based guidance values, improves interface to facilitate data exploration

Computational method outperforms animal tests

Predictions of acute health hazards by ‘data fusion’ read-across structure activity relationship (RASAR) modeling reported to be more reproducible than animal testing data

Call for reducing MOH in foods

Scientist reviews existing toxicological assessments of mineral oil hydrocarbons in foods, calls for lowering acceptable intake levels and phasing out use in food and food contact applications

BPA a risk factor for gut inflammation

Scientists observe BPA exposure in mice decreases anti-inflammatory metabolites produced by gut microbiota, worsens disease symptoms and mortality in disease model of induced colitis

Hearing on predictive toxicology roadmap

FDA holds public hearing on its predictive toxicology roadmap, September 12, 2018; registration open until August 29, 2018; comments accepted after hearing until October 12, 2018

Performance of in silico models for mutagenicity

Scientists evaluate performance of 4 in silico models to predict mutagenicity of food contact chemicals; applicability domain important, sensitivity for new substances poor

JRC’s policy brief on mixtures

EU Commission’s Joint Research Centre publishes policy brief on approaches to ensure chemical mixtures’ safety; current JRC research on mixtures focuses on interaction effects, links to diseases, use of biomonitoring in exposure assessment

Review on mineral oil hydrocarbons in food

Scientific review summarizes publications on mineral oil hydrocarbons in food until 2010, calls for systematic investigation of contamination sources, matching TDI levels for contamination and industrial applications