The Future of Toxicity Testing is Here EPA Tox21 partnership
taps high-tech robots to advance toxicity testing. Today there
are around 80,000 chemicals that exist in food and consumer
products, and 1,500 new synthetic chemicals are introduced into
the marketplace every year. Most of these chemicals, both new
and old, have not been tested for toxicological information,
presenting a serious challenge to those tasked with protecting
human health from potentially harmful chemical exposures. EPA
researchers are working to change that. They and their partners
are advancing the scientific basis for hazard identification and
risk assessment by helping usher in innovative new fields of
study and by tapping powerful modern technologies such as super
computers and other emerging technologies—including robots. As
part of the Agency’s Computational Toxicology Research Program
(CompTox), EPA has partnered with the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) National Toxicology
Program, the National Institut