High Production Volume Chemicals

High production volume chemicals, also referred to as HPV chemicals, are produced or imported into the United States in quantities of 1 million pounds or about 500 tonnes per year. In OECD countries, HPV chemicals are defined as being produced at levels greater than 1,000 tonnes per producer/importer per year in at least one member country/region. A list of HPV chemicals serves as an overall priority list, from which chemicals are selected to gather data for a screening information dataset (SIDS), for testing and for initial hazard assessment.

In 1987, member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development decided to investigate existing chemicals. In 1991, they agreed to begin by focusing on High production volume (HPV) chemicals, where production volume was used as a surrogate for data on occupational, consumer, and environmental exposure. Each country agreed to "sponsor" the assessment of a proportion of the HPV chemicals. Countries also agreed on a minimum set of required information, the screening information dataset (SIDS). Six tests are: acute toxicity, chronic toxicity, developmental toxicity/reproductive toxicity, mutagenicity, ecotoxicity and environmental fate. Using SIDS and detailed exposure data OECD's High Production Volume Chemicals Programme conducted initial risk assessments to screen and to identify any need for further work.

During the late 1990s, OECD member countries began to assess chemical categories and to use quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) results to create OECD guidance documents, as well as a computerized QSAR toolbox. In 1998, the global chemical industry, organized in the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) initiative, offered to join OECD efforts. The ICCA promised to sponsor by 2013 about 1,000 substances from the OECD's HPV chemicals list "to establish as priorities for investigation", based on "presumed wide dispersive use, production in two or more global regions or similarity to another chemical, which met either of these criteria". OECD in turn agreed to refocus and to "increase transparency, efficiency and productivity and allow longer-term planning for governments and industry". The OECD refocus was on initial hazard assessments of HPV chemicals only, and no longer extensive exposure information gathering and evaluation. Detailed exposure assessments within national (or regional) programmes and priority setting activities were postponed as post-SIDS work.

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