Active task forces
ECETOC task forces are established by ECETOC’s Scientific Committee in response to an identified need or objective, which typically sit within the framework of its strategy.
The work of an ECETOC task force follows a terms of reference established by the Scientific Committee. Each task force is directed by a chair, who is responsible for assuring the completion of its objectives. And each task force is supported by a scientific officer from the ECETOC Secretariat.
05.10.2023
Assessing risks to biodiversity from exposure to chemicals: where are we and where should we be going?
Why
The EU commission is increasingly focusing on restoring and preserving biodiversity, as evidenced by several new strategic documents. EU Biodiversity strategy, Farm to Fork, and the EU...
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05.10.2023
Building knowledge from available degradation simulation studies: analysis of the most influential factors & development of a grouping approach
Background
Degradation simulation studies are complex and technically challenging. Additionally, they are used to evaluate a broad range of industrial chemicals, with increasing data/testing requir...
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13.06.2019
Dose Selection Task Force
Background
Recent opinions published by the RAC on low top dose selection in animal toxicity studies have indicated an apparent intent of increasing dosages systematically in view of the criteria use...
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20.08.2024
Evaluation of a comparative safety assessment approach for mixtures
Why
Stakeholders across various sectors, including industry and regulatory bodies, consistently seek better and more sustainable alternatives throughout a product life cycle. Measuring the actual imp...
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22.10.2024
Good Practices in Omics Data Interpretation for Regulatory Applications
Why
Current frameworks guide omics data generation and reporting but lack interpretation guidance for regulatory use.
Focus is on addressing this gap without duplicating ongoing efforts in...
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04.04.2022
Inhalation Toxicological Properties of Low Soluble Particles and Their Relevance for C&L
Background
Poorly soluble particulate substances of low toxicity are progressively coming under intense regulatory pressure culminating in unjustified additional testing (see the extensive data pac...
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02.10.2024
Plastic Additives – Chemical risk assessment in the linear and circular plastic economy
Why
Plastic additives and plastic-associated chemicals are a topic of great interest for the negotiations of the Internationally Legal Binding Instrument to End Plastic Waste (‘ILBI’). Developing...
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02.10.2024
Polymer Analytics Task Force
Why
Polymers are best known as components of plastics; however, many other types of polymers exist as well, with joint estimates ranging from 70,000 to 400,000 polymers currently commercialized in th...
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17.01.2024
Population relevance for NTOs per EU Endocrine Disruption Criteria – Expert Group
Why
Technical guidance is still missing in response to EU scientific criteria for the determination of endocrine disrupting (ED) properties (ECHA & EFSA, 2018), to identify whether observed adver...
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06.03.2024
Scientific perspective on in vivo DNT testing
Why
Discussions are ongoing regarding the integration of developmental neuroxocixity (DNT) testing in chemical safety assessment in Europe (e.g. via inclusion of DNT cohorts in EOGRT studies (OECD TG...
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17.02.2023
Smart studies: Examine how in vivo studies could provide more information encompassing novel studies (and endpoints)
Why
“Smart” or extended studies can be defined as in vivo studies that employ additional or different endpoints from conventional studies.
They fall into 2 categories:
• those that follow u...
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07.08.2018
Special T4 Task Force
Why
A potential connection between reduction of thyroid hormones, in particular thyroxine (T4), and impaired neuronal (mental) development in children is being discussed. This debate has caused uncer...
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17.02.2023
Staged assessment: Exemplify the staged assessment process by using it to provide more information in low tonnage bands
Why
The current paradigm for identifying data (study) requirements is based upon a surrogate of exposure, namely production volume, which may under or overestimate real exposure. As presented in Both...
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14.05.2024
State of the Science and Next Steps for Non-EATS Modalities (metabolic disorders)
Why
Future regulation may extend beyond EATS (estrogen, androgen, thyroid, steroidogenic) mediated ED
State of science on non-EATS modalities needs review.
How
Establish state of scien...
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03.07.2023
Substances that activate various liver receptors as endocrine disruptors
Why
The current development of NAMs in the field of endocrine disruption (ED) is very active as the concept of ED is evolving in various areas of toxicology including liver toxicity/xenobiotic meta...
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28.10.2015
Targeted Risk Assessment: TRA Tool Steering Team
Introduction
ECETOC initiated its targeted risk assessment (TRA) activity in 2001 and the first public version (v1) of the TRA exposure model was made available in 2004. Since then the TRA tool has c...
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31.10.2023
TRA Task Force – Consumer branch
This Task Force was established to carry out an in-depth evaluation of the TRA Consumer tool.
A manuscript entitled An assessment of the ECETOC TRA Consumer tool performance as a screening level to...
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31.10.2023
TRA Task Force – Environment branch
This Task Force is active on a number of initiatives:
A state of the science literature review on assessment of humans exposed indirectly via the environment, to ascertain the state of the scien...
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31.10.2023
TRA Task Force – Worker branch
This Task Force has been active since 2019 to conduct a review of published validation studies on the TRA Worker tool.
A peer-reviewed publication (Urbanus et al., 2020) sets out the initial review...
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04.04.2022
Use of clinical data in identification of respiratory sensitisers
Background
There has been a propensity by regulators to rely primarily on health surveillance/clinical case study data (case reports, clinical databases, worker exposure studies) to classify substa...
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