Exposure Assessment Study on Lithium-Ion Battery Fire in Explosion Test Room in Battery Testing Facility.

A lithium-ion battery is a rechargeable battery that uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy and is the predominant battery type in many industrial and consumer electronics. The lithium-ion batteries are essential to ensure they operate safely. We conducted an exposure assessment five days after a fire in a battery-testing facility.

Animal Welfare Considerations When Conducting OECD Test Guideline Inhalation and Toxicokinetic Studies for Nanomaterials.

The OECD test guidelines for animal experiments play an important role in evaluating the chemical hazards. Animal tests performed using OECD guidelines, especially when the good laboratory practice (GLP) principle is applied, reduce the duplication of toxicity testing and ensure the best mutual acceptance of data by the OECD's Mutual Acceptance of Data (MAD). The OECD inhalation toxicity test guidelines 412 (28 days) and 413 (90 days) have been revised.

Repeated dose inhalation developmental toxicity study in rats exposed to cellulose insulation with boric acid additive.

Cellulose insulation (CI), a common building material, is a mixture of cellulose fibers and borates. Borates are approximately 20% of the product weight and act as a flame retardant. Given possible exposure to workers and consumers, an inhalation toxicity study was conducted following Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 414 for Prenatal Development Toxicity to evaluate if CI is a developmental toxicant.

Environmental exposure to perchlorate: A review of toxicology and human health.

Perchlorate pharmacology and toxicology studies date back at least 65 years in the peer-reviewed literature. Repeated studies in animals and humans have demonstrated perchlorate's mechanism of action, dose-response, and adverse effects over a range of doses. The first measurable effect of perchlorate is inhibition of iodine uptake to the thyroid gland.

Determination of Thresholds of Radioactive Iodine Uptake Response With Clinical Exposure to Perchlorate: A Pooled Analysis.

Objective: To conduct a more robust examination of perchlorate exposure on iodide uptake inhibition (IUI) using pooled data from four clinical studies of perchlorate exposure.

Methods: To establish a response threshold for IUI, data were analyzed using segmented linear regression and benchmark dose (BMD) analysis.

Results: Segmented linear regression applied to data for 69 subjects representing nine doses identified a breakpoint corresponding to a change in the slope of the dose-response relationship of 3.

Exposure of the US Population to Nitrate, Thiocyanate, Perchlorate, and Iodine Based on NHANES 2005-2014.

Perchlorate, thiocyanate, nitrate, and iodide all have the same action of iodide uptake inhibition. Urinary samples were available for the US population through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database for these compounds and were evaluated for the 2005 through 2014 time period. We were interested in whether exposures to the US population had changed since the mid-2000s.

Nanomaterial categorization for assessing risk potential to facilitate regulatory decision-making.

For nanotechnology to meet its potential as a game-changing and sustainable technology, it is important to ensure that the engineered nanomaterials and nanoenabled products that gain entry to the marketplace are safe and effective. Tools and methods are needed for regulatory purposes to allow rapid material categorization according to human health and environmental risk potential, so that materials of high concern can be targeted for additional scrutiny, while material categories that pose the least risk can receive expedited review. Using carbon nanotubes as an example, we discuss how data from alternative testing strategies can be used to facilitate engineered nanomaterial categorization according to risk potential and how such an approach could facilitate regulatory decision-making in the future.

A multi-stakeholder perspective on the use of alternative test strategies for nanomaterial safety assessment.

There has been a conceptual shift in toxicological studies from describing what happens to explaining how the adverse outcome occurs, thereby enabling a deeper and improved understanding of how biomolecular and mechanistic profiling can inform hazard identification and improve risk assessment. Compared to traditional toxicology methods, which have a heavy reliance on animals, new approaches to generate toxicological data are becoming available for the safety assessment of chemicals, including high-throughput and high-content screening (HTS, HCS). With the emergence of nanotechnology, the exponential increase in the total number of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in research, development, and commercialization requires a robust scientific approach to screen ENM safety in humans and the environment rapidly and efficiently.

Urinary nitrate, thiocyanate, and perchlorate and serum thyroid endpoints based on NHANES 2001 to 2002.

Objective: To determine, on the basis of iodide uptake inhibition (IUI), whether associations between urinary concentrations of IUI agents (perchlorate, nitrate, and thiocyanate), as total perchlorate equivalent concentration (PEC), and serum thyroid parameters suggest functional thyroid abnormalities. Additional thyroid hormone measures were released to augment the National Health and Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001 to 2002 data set, which we used in this study.

Methods: Enhanced thyroid hormone measures released to augment the National Health and Examination Survey (NHANES) 2001-2002 data set were used in this study.

Toxicological relevance of pharmaceuticals in drinking water.

Interest in the public health significance of trace levels of pharmaceuticals in potable water is increasing, particularly with regard to the effects of long-term, low-dose exposures. To assess health risks and establish target concentrations for water treatment, human health risk-based screening levels for 15 pharmaceutically active ingredients and four metabolites were compared to concentrations detected at 19 drinking water treatment plants across the United States. Compounds were selected based on rate of use, likelihood of occurrence, and potential for toxicity.

The naphthalene state of the science symposium: objectives, organization, structure, and charge.

This report provides a summary of the objectives, organization, structure and charge for the naphthalene state of the science symposium (NS(3)), Monterey, CA, October 9-12, 2006. A 1-day preliminary conference was held followed by a 3-day state of the science symposium covering four topics judged by the Planning Committee to be crucial for developing valid and reliable scientific estimates of low-dose human cancer risk from naphthalene. The Planning Committee reviewed the relevant scientific literature to identify singularly knowledgeable researchers and a pool of scientists qualified to serve as expert panelists.

Perchlorate and chlorate in dietary supplements and flavor enhancing ingredients.

The oxyhalide anions perchlorate and chlorate were measured in a series of dietary (vitamin and mineral) supplements and flavor enhancing ingredients collected from various commercial vendors in two large US cities. Analyses were conducted using liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The limit of detection was based on the mass of supplements and ingredients extracted and ranged from 2 to 15 ng/g for perchlorate and 4 to 30 ng/g for chlorate.

Health effects assessment for environmental perchlorate contamination: the dose response for inhibition of thyroidal radioiodine uptake in humans.

Application of a sensitive new detection method has revealed widespread perchlorate contamination of groundwater in the southwestern United States, typically at 0.005-0.020 mg/L (5-20 ppb).