WASHINGTON , DC — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has joined Tox21, a collaboration of federal agencies working to screen and understand the impacts of chemicals on humans.

Formed in 2008, Tox21 aims to have 10,000 chemicals screened by the end of this year, with the purpose of developing better ways to predict what effects those chemicals could have on people. Tox21 has screened 2,000 chemicals so far.

Current members of Tox21 are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Toxicology Program, National Human Genome Research Institute and Chemical Genomics Center.

The collaboration brings together resources from each agency, and the FDA will now add its expertise and chemical safety information. The agencies also work together to determine which chemicals need more extensive evaluation.

The EPA's contribution to Tox21 comes through its ToxCast program, which was launched in mid-2007 and has assessed more than 300 chemicals with 500 tests.

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