POPM 4040 Lecture 18: POPM 4040 Lecture : Chemical Intoxication
22 Dec 2018
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Document Summary
Low-level contamination most common; high-level through human error (accidents) Determinants of public health concern are: toxicity, extent of use, lipid solubility (or other propensity to bioaccumulate) heavy metals, iodine pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc) Basic assumption of toxicology: all substances are poisons; there is none that is not a poison. When available, epidemiological data from humans (e. g. outbreaks, occupational exposure) are used. Otherwise, surrogate data (e. g. animal studies) used if appropriate. Apply a safety factor to the threshold (no-effect level) When have good exposure data on humans and animals - factor of 10 to protect more sensitive people: lack human data factor of 100 (10 to protect more sensitive people and. Factor of 1000 when chronic toxicity data incomplete. Establishing exposure limits carcinogens gets complicated and controversial! Depends on assumed shape of dose-response curve at low concentration . Practical limits to measuring low-dose effects (statistical, logistical)
