Creation of a Curated Aquatic Toxicology Database: EnviroTox

  • Publication Date :
  • Publication Type : Journal Article
  • Author(s) : Connors KA, Beasley A, Barron MG, Belanger SE, Bonnell M, Brill JL, de Zwart D, Kienzler A, Krailler J, Otter R, Phillips JL, Embry MR
  • Journal Name : Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

Flexible, rapid, and predictive approaches that do not require the use of large numbers of vertebrate test animals are needed, as the chemical universe remains largely untested for potential hazards. Development of robust new approach methodologies (NAMs) and non‐testing approaches requires the use of existing information via curated, integrated datasets. The ecological threshold of toxicological concern (ecoTTC) represents one such NAM that can predict a conservative, de minimis toxicity value for chemicals with little or no information available. For the creation of an ecoTTC tool a large, diverse environmental dataset was developed from multiple sources, with harmonization, characterization, and information quality assessment steps to ensure that the information could be effectively organized and mined. The resulting EnviroTox database (www.envirotoxdatabase.org) contains 91,217 aquatic toxicity records representing 1,563 species, and 4,016 unique chemical CAS numbers and is a robust, curated database containing high quality aquatic toxicity studies that are traceable to the original information source. Chemical‐specific information is also linked to each record and includes physical chemical information, chemical descriptors, and mode of action classifications. Toxicity data is associated with the physical chemistry data, mode of action classifications, and curated taxonomic information for the organisms tested. The EnviroTox platform also includes three analysis tools: a predicted no effect concentration (PNEC) calculator, an ecoTTC distribution tool, and a chemical toxicity distribution (CTD) tool. Although the EnviroTox database and tools were originally developed to support ecoTTC analysis and development, it has broader applicability to the field of ecological risk assessment.

Full text online: https://setac.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/etc.4382

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