{"doi":"10.22438/jeb/43/1/editorial","title":"Contribution of Toxicology in Sustainable Development","abstract":"The concept of sustainable development attained prominence after the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held at Johannesburg in September, 2002. Earlier, the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), also known as Brundtland Commission Report (1987), named after its chairperson Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway, had warned the global community on unwise use of natural resources for economic development. It defined sustainable development, “ the development that meets the need of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The report highlighted the fundamental components of sustainable development, environment protection, economic growth and social equity. Much could not be done till September 2015, when 70th session of UN general assembly adopted 17 sustainable goals. These goals together constitute a blue print of development by the people and for the people conceived by active participation of UNESCO. Amongst these, five goals viz. good health and well- being, clean water and sanitation, decent work and economic growth, life below water and life on land, fall under the ambit of toxicology. National Toxicology Program (NTP) that was established by US Department of Health and Human Services in 1978 with its headquarters at National Institute of Environment Health Sciences, administers a unique collaboration between several federal agencies to develop new ways to test adverse effects of substances on human health. This program is known as Toxicology in 21st century (Tox- 21) (http://tox21.gov). The Tox21 collaboration was formalized in 2008 through a MOU between the National Institutes of Health, NTP, National Chemical Genomics Centre and the National Centre for Computation Toxicology. FDA joined Tox21 in 2010.The goal of Tox 21 is to research, develop, evaluate and translate innovative test methods that will better predict the effects of chemicals on human and environment health. The new focus areas include – development of expanded portfolio of alternative test systems to predict human toxicity, to address limitations of in vitro test systems, to curate the legacy of in-vivo testing, to establish confidence in in-vitro test systems. Excellent job has been done by Toxicity Forecaster (ToxCast). Through robotic screening system housed at NCATS, toxicologists are screening 10.000 environmental chemicals for their potential to cause toxicity (www.ncats.nih.gov). Toxicology is also contributing to Planetary Health initiative launched by Lancet (2015). The European Union (EU) has introduced a regulation – Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) by legislation in 2007. Other programs that address the goal of good health and well being include, International Program on Chemical safety (IPCS), Inter-organization Program for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOSMC), Inter-government forum for Chemical Safety (IFCS),Health and Environment Linkage Initiative (HELI), Strategic Approach to International Chemical Management (SAICM) and Global Chemical Outlook. The next goal of clean water and sanitation is addressed by regulatory toxicology through Clean Water Act (1972; amended 1977, 1978, 1987), Safe Drinking Water act (1974, amended in 1977, 1986, 1996) and Water Quality Act of 1987. In India, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act (1974) addresses this issue. The sub-discipline of aquatic toxicology nicely embraces this particular goal of sustainable development. Decent work or safe work environment is directly associated with human health. Science of toxicology considers it under another sub-discipline, i.e., occupational health/ industrial health or hygiene. Agencies like Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA), American Conference of Governmental and Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) and International Labour Organization (ILO) have enacted suitable laws/ regulations to safeguard human health. Toxic Substance Cont","journal":"Journal of Environmental Biology","year":2022,"id":294897,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9556,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":980959,"name":"S.V.S. Rana","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:31:05.260069Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}