The Food Quality Protection Act--Chemical Testing Issues
The previous Article described the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) and some of the legal challenges that have occurred during implementation. The purpose of this Article is to illustrate three generic chemical testing issues that could be related to the testing required by the FQPA. These issues are based on the author's participation on the Endocrine Disruptor Screening and Testing Advisory Committee's (EDSTAC's) Priority Setting Work Group, development of the endocrine disruption priority setting databases, previous publications on quantitative structure activity relationships (QSARs) for predicting estrogen-receptor binding affinities of chemicals, and experiences gleaned from the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Interagency Testing Committee's (ITC's) selection of chemicals for testing. These issues include the need to consider: (1) the bioavailability of the chemicals being considered for screening or testing; (2) the physical properties of the chemicals being considered for screening or testing; and (3) the application domain of the chemicals used to develop QSARs to predict relevant endpoints versus the domain of the chemicals being considered for screening or testing.