IDEA work presented at the EPAA NAM User Forum in Helsinki

This week, the NAMs community gathered at the EPAA NAM User Forum, hosted by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki, Finland.

Dr Amaia Irizar presented IDEA's work on using New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) to support skin sensitization risk assessment for fragrance ingredients, specifically deriving a reference point that can be used to calculate safe exposure levels.

Skin sensitization NAMs were originally developed to help identify whether a substance is a potential skin sensitizer and later evolved to assess how potent that sensitization might be for classification purposes. The work presented at the Forum shows a further step forward: using these methods to support full quantitative risk assessment.

In addition to skin sensitization, the Forum addressed the regulatory application of NAMs for systemic toxicity, endocrine disruption, and environmental safety assessment, and concluded with a workshop on artificial intelligence (AI)-based tools to support Next Generation Risk Assessment.