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State-Of-The-Science Workshop Report: Issues And Approaches In Low Dose–Response Extrapolation For Environmental Health Risk Assessment
Citation:
White, R. H., I. L. COTE, L. Zeise, M. Fox, F. Dominici, T. A. Burke, P. WHITE, D. HATTIS, AND J. M. Sarnet. State-Of-The-Science Workshop Report: Issues And Approaches In Low Dose–Response Extrapolation For Environmental Health Risk Assessment. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Research Triangle Park, NC, 117(2):283-7, (2009).
Impact/Purpose:
Workshop goals were to: (1) review the state of the science for high-to-low dose-response extrapolation methods in environmental health risk assessments, (2) identify realistic approaches for the practical application of low-dose extrapolation incorporating the relevant scientific evidence to the fullest extent feasible and (3) identify areas for future work.
Description:
Low-dose extrapolation model selection for evaluating the health effects of environmental pollutants is a key component of the risk assessment process. At a workshop held in Baltimore, MD, on April 23-24, 2007, and sponsored by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Johns Hopkins Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute, a multidisciplinary group of experts reviewed the state of the science regarding low-dose extrapolation modeling and its application in environmental health risk assessments. Discussion topics were identified based on a literature review, which included examples for which human responses to ambient exposures have been extensively characterized for cancer and/or noncancer outcomes.
Topics included:
- the need for formalized approaches and criteria to assess the evidence for mode of action;
- the use of human vs. animal data;
- the use of mode of action information in biologically-based models; and
- the implications of interindividual variability, background disease processes and background exposures in threshold vs. nonthreshold model choice.
