In an article published on November 23, 2015 the National Food Institute at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Food) informs about a new (Q)SAR database containing over 600,000 chemical structures and information on physicochemical properties, environmental behavior and toxicity endpoints. The database was launched by DTU Food and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency and is publicly available to everyone. The provided data are based on computer calculations from (quantitative) structure-activity relationships ((Q)SARs). The (Q)SARs compare chemical structures to chemical substances that have been tested for e.g. endocrine disruption, allergic or carcinogenic effects. If a chemical structure sufficiently resembles the structure of a known harmful substance, it is likely that this chemical structure is also harmful. The database allows companies to “easily do a search for a substance (…) and get an overview of the (Q)SAR predictions of a wide range of harmful effects.” When companies are looking to replace harmful chemicals, the database can be useful to screen for potential effects of possible alternatives, DTU Food writes.
DTU Food (November 23, 2015). “Companies are given new tool to check for harmful chemical substances.”