Office of Research and Development
Chemical Safety for Sustainability Research
Chemical safety is a major priority of EPA research. Moving toward a safer and more sustainable environment requires producing new and existing chemicals in safer ways. It means having the information and methods needed to make better-informed, more-timely decisions about chemicals, many of which have not been thoroughly evaluated for potential risks to human health and the environment. EPA research on chemical safety is geared to meet this challenge.
Using innovative approaches, EPA scientists and their partners are embracing the principles of green chemistry to produce safer chemicals. They are also integrating a diversity of scientific disciplines to develop new prediction techniques, pioneering the use of innovative technologies for chemical toxicity testing, and designing tools to advance the management of chemical risks. Chemical safety for sustainability includes research in computational toxicology, nanotechnology, endocrine disrupting chemicals, human health, and pesticides.
Research Focus Areas
Chemical Safety for Sustainability research is focused on three main areas.
1. Provide Scientific Knowledge, Tools & Models for Integrated Evaluation Strategies
The research goal is to develop the scientific knowledge, tools,
and models needed to improve chemical safety information that can be used in assessments and to make decisions about their use.
Research in this area will provide critical information for assessments and decision making on chemical exposure and impacts to humans and wildlife at the individual and population levels. This research area has
multiple levels including chemical properties, prioritization and screening, hypothesis-driven targeted research and systems understanding of complex environmental risk.
2. Improve Assessment and Inform Management for Chemical Safety
The research goal is tofacilitate faster, more efficient, more certain, and sustainable chemical assessments and management decisions. Research will support the next generation of risk assessment and management approaches to help screen and prioritize chemicals for their safety and make major regulatory decisions to protect human health and wildlife.
These chemical risk assessment and management methods will: 1) Lead to better and more efficient assessments and 2) Provide risk management options that better target where risks are more likely to occur throughout a chemical’s life cycle from production to disposal.
3. Target High Priority Research Needs for Immediate and Focused Attention
The research goal isto address the highest priority needs of EPA’s program and regional offices, which are responsible for developing regulations and ensuring they are implemented, respectively. The work focuses on filling critical data gaps and identifying high priority needs of chemical management programs using the products of the other two research areas.
Announcements
Resources
The Research Framework will be used to develop a Research Action Plan that will provide more details of the research to be conducted.
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Green Chemistry Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 43KB)
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability Research Fact Sheet (PDF) (2 pp, 61KB)
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Research Framework Document (PDF) (32 pp, 542 KB)
- Search the Science Inventory