Yes / The COSMOS Database (DB) was originally established to provide reliable data for cosmetics-related chemicals within the COSMOS Project funded as part of the SEURAT-1 Research Initiative. The database has subsequently been maintained and developed further into COSMOS Next Generation (NG), a combination of database and in silico tools, essential components of a knowledge base. COSMOS DB provided a cosmetics inventory as well as other regulatory inventories, accompanied by assessment results and in vitro and in vivo toxicity data. In addition to data content curation, much effort was dedicated to data governance - data authorisation, characterisation of quality, documentation of meta information, and control of data use. Through this effort, COSMOS DB was able to merge and fuse data of various types from different sources. Building on the previous effort, the COSMOS Minimum Inclusion (MINIS) criteria for a toxicity database were further expanded to quantify the reliability of studies. COSMOS NG features multiple fingerprints for analysing structure similarity, and new tools to calculate molecular properties and screen chemicals with endpoint-related public profilers, such as DNA and protein binders, liver alerts and genotoxic alerts. The publicly available COSMOS NG enables users to compile information and execute analyses such as category formation and read-across. This paper provides a step-by-step guided workflow for a simple read-across case, starting from a target structure and culminating in an estimation of a NOAEL confidence interval. Given its strong technical foundation, inclusion of quality-reviewed data, and provision of tools designed to facilitate communication between users, COSMOS NG is a first step towards building a toxicological knowledge hub leveraging many public data systems for chemical safety evaluation. We continue to monitor the feedback from the user community at support@mn-am.com.

No / The rate at which toxicological data is generated is continually becoming more rapid and the volume of data generated is growing dramatically. This is due in part to advances in software solutions and cheminformatics approaches which increase the availability of open data from chemical, biological and toxicological and high throughput screening resources. However, the amplified pace and capacity of data generation achieved by these novel techniques presents challenges for organising and analysing data output. Big Data in Predictive Toxicology discusses these challenges as well as the opportunities of new techniques encountered in data science. It addresses the nature of toxicological big data, their storage, analysis and interpretation. It also details how these data can be applied in toxicity prediction, modelling and risk assessment.

No / Quality assessment (QA) requires high levels of domain-specific experience and knowledge. QA tasks for toxicological data are usually performed by human experts manually, although a number of quality evaluation schemes have been proposed in the literature. For instance, the most widely utilised Klimisch scheme1 defines four data quality categories in order to tag data instances with respect to their qualities; ToxRTool2 is an extension of the Klimisch approach aiming to increase the transparency and harmonisation of the approach. Note that the processes of QA in many other areas have been automatised by employing expert systems. Briefly, an expert system is a computer program that uses a knowledge base built upon human expertise, and an inference engine that mimics the reasoning processes of human experts to infer new statements from incoming data. In particular, expert systems have been extended to deal with the uncertainty of information by representing uncertain information (such as linguistic terms) as fuzzy sets under the framework of fuzzy set theory and performing inferences upon fuzzy sets according to fuzzy arithmetic. This paper presents an experimental fuzzy expert system for toxicological data QA which is developed on the basis of the Klimisch approach and the ToxRTool in an effort to illustrate the power of expert systems to toxicologists, and to examine if fuzzy expert systems are a viable solution for QA of toxicological data. Such direction still faces great difficulties due to the well-known common challenge of toxicological data QA that "five toxicologists may have six opinions". In the meantime, this challenge may offer an opportunity for expert systems because the construction and refinement of the knowledge base could be a converging process of different opinions which is of significant importance for regulatory policy making under the regulation of REACH, though a consensus may never be reached. Also, in order to facilitate the implementation of Weight of Evidence approaches and in silico modelling proposed by REACH, there is a higher appeal of numerical quality values than nominal (categorical) ones, where the proposed fuzzy expert system could help. Most importantly, the deriving processes of quality values generated in this way are fully transparent, and thus comprehensible, for final users, which is another vital point for policy making specified in REACH. Case studies have been conducted and this report not only shows the promise of the approach, but also demonstrates the difficulties of the approach and thus indicates areas for future development. / U 7th Framework Programme Integrated Project “Integrated In Silico Models for Prediction of Human Repeated Dose Toxicity of Cosmetics to Optimise Safety” (COSMOS). Grant Number: 266835. Cosmetics Europe.

Durante o ciclo de vida dos produtos químicos, é possível que estes sejam lançados no ambiente ou ainda que sejam absorvidos por indivíduos de uma população, podendo ocorrer danos ambientais ou alterações no estado de saúde desses indivíduos expostos. Por haver a possibilidade de riscos à saúde é imprescindível investigá-los nas diversas situações possíveis de exposição, a fim de estabelecer, quando necessário, medidas preventivas ou emergenciais, visando a proteção da população e das demais espécies presentes nos compartimentos ambientais. Um dos requisitos básicos para o processo de avaliação de risco é a identificação dos perigos que os produtos químicos podem oferecer à saúde devido suas propriedades químicas e fisico-químicas. Este estudo teve como finalidade realizar um levantamento sobre a existência de informações relativas à toxicidade e comportamento no ambiente de produtos químicos fabricados, importados e ou com capacidade de produção no Brasil maior que 500 toneladas por ano, os quais não estão sendo objeto de investigação nos principais programas atualmente existentes no mundo destinados à avaliação de risco de substâncias químicas. O método proposto por este estudo possibilitou uma análise crítica da falta de informação sobre dados de produção ou importação de produtos químicos utilizados no Brasil, além de possibilitar o levantamento sobre a existência de informações toxicológicas para produtos químicos fabricados em larga escala no país. Como resultado, foi constatado que apenas 3,9 % de 461 produtos químicos possuem as informações necessárias para o processo de avaliação inicial de risco. / Chemical products during their life cycle may be absorbed by individuals of the population, consequent1y causing environmental damage or interfering in the health of the exposed individuals. Due to the possibility of health risks, it is imperative to evaluate these risks in all possible situations. If needed, prevention and emergency measures, aiming at protecting the population and the species present in the environment, should be established. A basic requirement for risk assessment is the hazard presented to health by chemical products due to their physic-chemical properties. The objective of this paper was to raise the available data related to the toxicity and the impact on the environment of high volume chemicals manufactured, imported or with a production capacity in Brazil greater than 500 t/year, that are not included in the major world programs of risk assessment. The methodology used in this paper enabled a critical analysis of the lack of data on production or imports of chemicals used in Brazil, in addition to the screening of toxicological information for high production volume chemicals produced in Brazil. As a result, it was found that only 3,9% of the 461 chemicals have the information required for a initial risk assessment.

Durante o ciclo de vida dos produtos químicos, é possível que estes sejam lançados no ambiente ou ainda que sejam absorvidos por indivíduos de uma população, podendo ocorrer danos ambientais ou alterações no estado de saúde desses indivíduos expostos. Por haver a possibilidade de riscos à saúde é imprescindível investigá-los nas diversas situações possíveis de exposição, a fim de estabelecer, quando necessário, medidas preventivas ou emergenciais, visando a proteção da população e das demais espécies presentes nos compartimentos ambientais. Um dos requisitos básicos para o processo de avaliação de risco é a identificação dos perigos que os produtos químicos podem oferecer à saúde devido suas propriedades químicas e fisico-químicas. Este estudo teve como finalidade realizar um levantamento sobre a existência de informações relativas à toxicidade e comportamento no ambiente de produtos químicos fabricados, importados e ou com capacidade de produção no Brasil maior que 500 toneladas por ano, os quais não estão sendo objeto de investigação nos principais programas atualmente existentes no mundo destinados à avaliação de risco de substâncias químicas. O método proposto por este estudo possibilitou uma análise crítica da falta de informação sobre dados de produção ou importação de produtos químicos utilizados no Brasil, além de possibilitar o levantamento sobre a existência de informações toxicológicas para produtos químicos fabricados em larga escala no país. Como resultado, foi constatado que apenas 3,9 % de 461 produtos químicos possuem as informações necessárias para o processo de avaliação inicial de risco. / Chemical products during their life cycle may be absorbed by individuals of the population, consequent1y causing environmental damage or interfering in the health of the exposed individuals. Due to the possibility of health risks, it is imperative to evaluate these risks in all possible situations. If needed, prevention and emergency measures, aiming at protecting the population and the species present in the environment, should be established. A basic requirement for risk assessment is the hazard presented to health by chemical products due to their physic-chemical properties. The objective of this paper was to raise the available data related to the toxicity and the impact on the environment of high volume chemicals manufactured, imported or with a production capacity in Brazil greater than 500 t/year, that are not included in the major world programs of risk assessment. The methodology used in this paper enabled a critical analysis of the lack of data on production or imports of chemicals used in Brazil, in addition to the screening of toxicological information for high production volume chemicals produced in Brazil. As a result, it was found that only 3,9% of the 461 chemicals have the information required for a initial risk assessment.