Read the full story from George Washington University.
The majority of commercial chemicals that enter the market in the United States every year have insufficient health and safety data. For pesticides, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses a variety of techniques to fill data gaps in order to evaluate chemical hazard, exposure and risk. Nonetheless, public concern over the potential threat that these chemicals pose has grown in recent years, along with the realization that traditional animal-testing methods fall short of speed, economic or ethical standards.
Now, researchers at the George Washington University Columbian College of Arts & Sciences (CCAS) have developed a new computational approach to rapidly screen pesticides for safety, performance and how long they endure in the environment. The new approach will aid in the design of next-generation molecules to develop safer pesticides.
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