The mission of the HESI Agricultural Chemical Safety Assessment (ACSA) Technical Committee is to develop a consensus across sectors (government, academia, and industry) on a credible and viable testing approach for assessing the safety of crop protection chemicals.  The approach will include scientifically appropriate studies that are necessary without being redundant, emphasize toxicological endpoints and exposure durations that are relevant for risk assessment, provide greater efficiency, use fewer animals, use resources more wisely, and generally include improved data for risk assessment purposes.

For more information on the ACSA Technical Committee’s membership and activities, click here.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF AVAILABILITY OF PROPOSED ACSA TIERED TESTING APPROACH

After six years of scientific discussion, data mining, case study development, and consensus-building, as well as countless meetings and conference calls, the ACSA Technical Committee announced its final version of an improved tiered testing scheme for assessing the safety of crop protection chemicals.  The ACSA approach, which departs from the current standardized list of hazard studies used by many national authorities, includes scientifically appropriate studies, emphasizes toxicological endpoints and exposure durations that are relevant for risk assessment, provides greater efficiency, uses fewer animals, uses resources more wisely, and includes improved data for risk assessment purposes.  The HESI effort has been hailed as the first comprehensive effort of its kind to scientifically re-design the testing framework for agricultural chemicals.

Four manuscripts which describe the ACSA tiered testing proposal have been published as a “Special Issue” in the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology, Volume 36, Issue 1 (January 2006):

Carmichael, NG, Barton, HA, Boobis, AR, Cooper, RL, Dellarco, VL, Doerrer, NG, Fenner-Crisp, PA, Doe, JE, Lamb, JC, and Pastoor, TP. 2006. Agricultural chemical safety assessment: a multi-sector approach to the modernization of human safety requirements. Crit Rev Toxicol.  36, 1-7.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16708692&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum

Barton, HA, Pastoor, TP, Baetcke, K, Chambers, JE, Diliberto, J, Doerrer, NG, Driver, JH, Hastings, CE, Iyengar, S, Krieger, R, Stahl, B, and Timchalk, C. 2006. The acquisition and application of absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) data in agricultural chemical safety assessments.  Crit Rev Toxicol.  36, 9-35.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16708693&query_hl=5&itool=pubmed_docsum

Doe, JE, Boobis, AR, Blacker, A, Dellarco, VL, Doerrer, NG, Franklin, C, Goodman, JI, Kronenberg, JM, Lewis, R, McConnell, EE, Mercier, T, Moretto, A, Nolan, C, Padilla, S, Phang, W, Solecki, R, Tilbury, L, van Ravenswaay, B, and Wolf, DC. 2006. A tiered approach to systemic toxicity testing for agricultural chemical safety assessment.  Crit Rev Toxicol.  36, 37-68.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16708694&query_hl=7&itool=pubmed_docsum

Cooper, RL, Lamb, JC, Barlow, SM, Bentley, K, Brady, AM, Doerrer, NG, Eisenbrandt, DL, Fenner-Crisp, PA, Hines, RN, Irvine, LFH, Kimmel, CA, Koeter, H, Li, AA, Makris, SL, Sheets, L, Speijers, GJA, and Whitby, K. 2006. A tiered approach to life stages testing for agricultural chemical safety assessment.  Crit Rev Toxicol.  36, 69-98.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16708695&query_hl=9&itool=pubmed_docsum

Proposed ACSA Tiered Testing Approach Featured at November 2005 HESI Workshop on Framework Approaches to Risk Assessment 

More than 100 scientists from HESI member and non-member companies, academic institutions, and national and international government agencies participated in a “Frameworks” workshop organized and sponsored by HESI in Nice, France, on November 14-16, 2005.  Three sessions focused on different project areas addressed by HESI activities, including:  DNA Adducts in Risk Assessment, Rodent Liver Tumors as a Predictor of Human Cancer Risk, and the tiered-testing strategy for assessing the safety of crop protection chemicals developed by the HESI ACSA Technical Committee.

To view the speaker presentations on the proposed ACSA tiered testing approach for crop protection chemicals, click here.

Files

Download the English Agricultural Chemical Safety Assessment Technical Committee fact sheet here

Download the Japanese Agricultural Chemical Safety Assessment Technical Committee fact sheet here