Selecting analogues for chemical substances: replacing hazardous substances, alternative research methods

Substances with certain hazardous properties
can be hazardous to human health and/or the environment

Replacing hazardous chemical substances with their safer analogues can bring significant benefits to your company, the environment, and health of workers and consumers

Selecting analogues for hazardous chemical substances

WHICH
SUBSTANCES
SHOULD
BE SUBSTITUTED?

PBT and vPvB substances
Endocrine-disrupting components
Carcinogens, mutagens
Reproductive toxicants
Respiratory sensitizers

WHY YOU
SHOULD
CONSIDER
REPLACING
HAZARDOUS
SUBSTANCES

Reducing the negative impact of processes and products to the environment
Prompt response to consumer demands
Better technical functionality

Possible results

IMPROVING
MANUFACTURING
EFFICIENCY

REDUCING
REGULATORY
EXPENSES

COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE

DOING
THE RIGHT
THING

Alternative methods for testing chemicals

Traditional methods of determining toxicity and ecotoxicity are rather resource intensive. With the advent of REACH-like regulations (incl. the TR EAEU 041/2017), which imply obtaining comprehensive information about toxicity of large amounts of substance, it becomes clear that the traditional methods cannot satisfy the information demands

What is read-across?

The known information about the properties of analogue substances (source substance) is used to predict the same properties of the substance which is being researched (target substance)
Category formation, grouping and read across methods are broadly applicable in toxicological assessments and may be used to fill data gaps for chemical safety assessment and regulatory decisions

Why read-across?

Avoid animal testing
Find replacements for traditional, resource-intensive toxicity and ecotoxicity testing
Cover more substances in one safety assessment
Use the read-across results when it is impossible to conduct the actual tests of the substance which is being researched

Read-across in the regulatory context

75% of all registration dossiers under REACH include read-across or categorisation reasoning
Read-across methods are supported by the large database of toxicology studies that have been conducted over the past 50+ years
Use of read-across results to comply with the requirements of the TR EAEU 041/2017 “On Safety of Chemicals” is allowed