US EPA assesses industrial chemicals using framework published in collaboration with the Science Consortium

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics assessed two chemicals (diisobutyl phthalate and dicyclohexyl phthalate) using the Rethinking Carcinogenicity Assessment for Agrochemicals Project (ReCAAP) framework for evaluating carcinogenicity and chronic toxicity. The framework was developed by the EPA, PETA Science Consortium International e.V., and other international stakeholders.

ReCAAP was originally developed for agrochemicals but is applicable to other sectors, and this is the first time the EPA has applied the framework to industrial chemicals. In the absence of in vivo cancer bioassay data, it provides a weight-of-evidence template to structure existing data from a test substance and/or similar substances to determine if there is sufficient information to conduct a regulatory assessment.

The EPA, the Science Consortium, and other collaborators co-authored papers on this framework that were published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology and Frontiers in Toxicology, followed by the publication of two case studies by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development showing the use of ReCAAP for carcinogenicity assessment.