Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)

United States (federal) · Advisory — screening Minimal Risk Levels, not enforceable · Established 1985 · Authored by Karen Pendergrass, Institute for Contaminant Standards · www.atsdr.cdc.gov

Quick read

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the US CDC, publishes toxicological profiles and derives Minimal Risk Levels (MRLs) — estimates of daily human exposure unlikely to cause non-cancer health effects. MRLs are screening tools for flagging contamination concerns, not enforceable limits and not the level at which harm begins.

Mandate & scope

Created under the 1980 Superfund law and operating since 1985 within the CDC, ATSDR assesses the health effects of hazardous substances, principally at contaminated sites. Its toxicological profiles synthesize the literature for each metal and derive Minimal Risk Levels — substance- and duration-specific estimates of daily exposure (oral or inhalation) below which non-cancer effects are not expected. The Index tracks ATSDR MRLs for cadmium (0.1 µg/kg b.w./day, chronic oral) and aluminium (1 mg/kg b.w./day). MRLs are explicitly screening values: set with safety margins, not enforceable, and crossing one signals a need for closer evaluation rather than a level at which harm is established. ATSDR’s profiles are also among the most thorough public toxicological reviews available and are widely cited well beyond the site-assessment context.

Positions across metals

Where it diverges

ATSDR MRLs are intake-based (µg or mg/kg b.w./day) and so share a basis with EPA RfDs and EFSA/JECFA intakes, but they are conservative screening values rather than regulatory or “tolerable” limits, so a lower ATSDR number does not mean ATSDR judges a metal more dangerous — it reflects the screening purpose and built-in safety margins. ATSDR’s cadmium MRL aligns closely with EPA’s IRIS oral RfD; both are intake estimates, distinct from the EU’s and Codex’s concentration-based maximum levels in food.

Cadmium

Aluminium

Update log

Key documents

References

Positions, the update log, and key documents above are generated from the per-instrument regulation pages this body issues, via tools/build-regulator-pages.mjs. The wiki reports what ATSDR has published; it does not endorse it. See HMTc separation policy for why reporting regulatory values is kept architecturally separate from certification threshold-setting.