Improvement and development of QSAR's for phenols

Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSARs) are developed to predict a certain effect or property of a substance based on its chemical structure. Using QSARs is one alternative to animal testing. For instance, it can be used to indicate potential risks in the effect assessment of a chemical. At present, QSARs are available for quite a number of substances and different software tools are available to assist risk assessors in toxicological effect assessment. However, validation of these QSARs is limited. To apply QSARs more frequently, as desired by the European Commission, the availability of validated QSARs is required. For this purpose, in the year 2004 the OECD formulated and agreed on principles for the validation for regulatory purposes of QSAR models. The next step is to implement these principles to enhance the use of QSARs in evaluating substances. The present investigation will contribute to this by evaluating existing human and ecological QSARs of phenols and if possible to improve or develop new QSARs in accordance to OECD principles.