ChemFORWARD Integrates OECD’s Guidance on Selection of Safer Chemical Alternatives to Support Global Alternative Assessment Practitioners
Durham, NC, September 9, 2025
Today, ChemFORWARD announced new enhancements to their web-based platform that operationalize and integrate the application of OECD’s Guidance on Key Considerations for the Identification and Selection of Safer Chemical Alternatives.
The new feature enables users to easily identify chemicals that fail to meet the OECD’s Minimum Criteria for Safer Alternatives, based on ChemFORWARD's insights for users. Over 22,000 chemicals are identified as failing to meet the Minimum Criteria for Safer Alternatives based on ChemFORWARD’s review. All hazard endpoints and hazard lists cited in the guidance for the Minimum and Moving Beyond the Minimum Criteria are available* in ChemFORWARD to facilitate in-depth alternatives assessments using comprehensive chemical hazard assessments (CHAs).
The Growing Importance of Alternatives Assessment
Alternatives assessment is an increasingly important field driven by a growing demand for safer chemicals and technologies. Businesses are using alternative assessments to meet various demands, including government regulations (e.g., REACH in the EU and state-level regulations in the U.S.), as well as demands from industry, retailers, and consumers for products free of harmful chemicals.
The goal of alternatives assessment is "informed substitution," which involves identifying and evaluating alternatives based on human health and ecological hazards, potential trade-offs, and technical and economic feasibility.
Addressing the Lack of Consistent Criteria for "Safer"
A significant challenge in alternatives assessment is the lack of a consistent definition for "safer".
The OECD guidance aims to provide a consistent understanding of the minimum requirements for determining whether a chemical alternative may be considered safer. The guidance defines a "safer alternative" as “a chemical, product, or technology that is preferable, in terms of both hazard and potential for exposure to humans and the environment, than the existing option” (OECD, 2021). Therefore, the OECD's guide helps by giving a baseline definition of what is not safer.
ChemFORWARD’s definition of “safer” builds upon this definition. To us, safer chemicals for which comprehensive human health and environmental toxicity and fate data are available, and for which the human and environmental health hazards are moderate to low.
The OECD guidance is not a standalone framework, but rather it is designed to complement existing alternatives assessment or decision-making methods by providing Minimum and Moving Beyond the Minimum Criteria for safer alternatives and recommended best practices. The OECD’s Moving Beyond the Minimum Criteria helps to reduce uncertainty and the likelihood of a substitution decision leading to negative, unintended consequences for the environment, workers, or the public more broadly. These criteria represent a more comprehensive review and recommended practices, including reviewing complete chemical hazard assessments (CHAs) like those housed in ChemFORWARD.
By integrating these OECD Criteria into the ChemFORWARD platform, users can easily navigate from reviewing Minimum Criteria for safer alternatives to comprehensive use-case considerations in one place.
Key OECD Guidance
Authoritative lists should be used to quickly screen out problematic alternatives. For a full evaluation, the Guidance recommends using GHS (Globally Harmonized System)-based methods for selecting endpoints and applying criteria. Finally, the establishment of transparent decision rules and consider data gaps and uncertainties.
ChemFORWARD supports this progressive approach with dozens of authoritative and non-authoritative lists and CHAs with comprehensive GHS hazard endpoint classifications. The Minimum Criteria apply to all chemical/product combinations; thus, clear indication of chemicals failing to meet these criteria supports swift, informed decision-making and the avoidance of chemicals that would not be considered safer in any application. Moving Beyond the Minimum Criteria lists and hazard endpoint classifications are available for review in the ChemFORWARD platform as well.
New Features to Support Alternative Assessments
These features were developed to support the global community applying OECD guidance and pursuing the practice of alternative assessments. Alternative assessments can be supported by the use of ChemFORWARD’s readily available, comprehensive chemical hazard assessments, where potentially safer alternatives meet the following criteria:
Chemical is not marked as “Fails to Meet Minimum Criteria for Safer Alternatives”;
Chemical passes regulatory and non-regulatory list screening; and
Chemical meets decision rules regarding chemical GHS hazard endpoint classifications.
The Chemical Hazard Data Trust, managed by ChemFORWARD, houses comprehensive chemical hazard assessments based on an enhanced GHS-based methodology (including endocrine disruption/activity, persistence, and bioaccumulation), conducted by qualified toxicology firms, peer reviewed by independent toxicologists, and subject to regular maintenance.
To learn more about the approach for incorporating the OECD Guidance into ChemFORWARD, please visit the Application of OECD Guidance on Key Considerations for the Identification and Selection of Safer Chemical Alternatives in ChemFORWARD section on the ChemFORWARD website, located under “Our Approach”.
*Note that hazard endpoints or lists that are not appropriate to review at the generic CAS-level (e.g., trade-name specific) are excluded. Additionally, all other interpretations, including list exclusions and interpretations, are made available for review HERE.
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ChemFORWARD, a science-based, non-profit organization dedicated to creating broad access to chemical hazard data and illuminating safer chemical alternatives. Through its innovative shared data platform, the Chemical Hazard Data Trust, ChemFORWARD collaborates with brands, retailers, suppliers, and scientists to create transparent, actionable information that helps industries move toward safe and sustainable products.
