Determining acute health hazard ratings in the absence of applicable toxicological data.

Health, safety, and emergency planning professionals have a responsibility to identify acute hazards associated with chemicals and to find a way to transmit that information to chemical users, emergency responders, and others. Various organizations such as the Department of Energy are considering acute health hazard ratings as triggers that would mandate various activities. A paradigm shift away from a "lists" based approach to determining whether a chemical is sufficiently hazardous to require further analysis for emergency planning purposes is under way.