Evidence-based Toxicology

Welcome to EBTOX.ORG

This website is an invitation.

• an invitation to join scientists and stakeholders in an effort to review the scientific basis of traditional toxicological risk assessment, to provide the toxicological community with the tools it needs to efficiently and transparently judge risks of a diversifying nature and to make toxicology thus fit to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
• an invitation to participate in the inception and continuous implementation of a new movement in toxicology that aims at adopting an evidence-based approach.
• an invitation to help bridging the gap between modern toxicological science and risk assessment in order to exploit the wealth of information from new technologies in modern life sciences & toxicological research and to arrive at informed, transparent, judicious and conscientious decisions made on the basis of all evidence available.
• an invitation to develop a framework that allows combining precious expert insight grown over years of practical experience with structured approaches in basic science, in method assessment and in decision-making.

Such evidence-based toxicology might help to make the best possible use of all sources of evidence in an efficient, productive, reliable, acceptable and transparent manner.

Are we using the best available scientific evidence to make decisions about toxicological risks?

• Effective safety assessments in toxicology critically depend on progress in basic scientific research and should adapt constantly to advances in knowledge. However, many traditional approaches hamper the full exploitation of new developments in life and toxicological sciences.
• Toxicology still largely relies on assessment methodologies that have changed little despite scientific and technological progress. As a consequence, safety assessments which directly impact on our health and our environment are based on tests of unknown relevance and reliability and whose predictive validity has never been assessed in an objective manner.
• There is no doubt that toxicology has made our world safer. However, one should not forget that there is an enormous data gap on the safety of old or nanotechnology substances with proper safety assessments most existing chemical substances still lacking – something now tackled by the RECAH legislation and the HVP programme in the US. Moreover, for many assessment methods, we do not know how large our margin of safety is. Finally, with the advent of new technologies, safety assessments should not have to rely on testing systems that were never designed to deal with, for instance, biotechnological products.
• However, it is not only the inherent properties of testing tools where there appears to be room for improvement, but also the way the results generated by these tools are finally used for judging possible hazards and risks and subsequent decision making in risk management. These issues mainly concern the transparency and consistency of data interpretation and the integration of various data sets. Faced with increasing amounts of information being created in basic research at an ever-accelerating pace, we urgently require efficient tools which enable us to make full and exhaustive use of this information in a structured, reliable and transparent manner.
• How can this be achieved?

The emerging concept of evidence-based toxicology (EBT)

• Over the last two decades clinical medicine has developed a new approach (“evidence-based medicine”) seeking to ensure that any decision for patients’ health is based on the best scientific evidence available. Similarly, toxicology might embrace an “evidence-based toxicology”: the best possible scientific evidence shall be applied to assess testing tools in an evidence-based manner and for using results generated by these tools again in an evidence-based manner for making decisions on product safety and likely risks to humans and environment.
• This webpage is dedicated to fostering the concept of an evidence-based toxicology (EBT). This page is meant to inform on new developments and serve as an information platform for aiding and accelerating the creation of an evidence-based toxicology.
• EBT is currently developing and emerging on the background of various concepts and ideas from scientists that would like to improve the tools for performing hazard and risk assessment.
• You are invited to join these efforts to build an evidence-based toxicology fit to meet the safety challenges of today and tomorrow!