Implications of hormesis for industrial hygiene.
This paper considers hormesis as a valid and potentially valuable alternative hypothesis for low-dose response in the context of occupational health risk assessment. It outlines the current occupational risk assessment paradigm and its use of high-dose toxicological data in setting occupational exposure limits (OELs). This present effort is a call to science to investigate the potential promise of hormesis in providing prima facie experimental evidence for a low-dose threshold of toxic effect to chemical agents. The scientific effort and advancement advised in this piece could also lead to experimentally validated quantitative estimates of the toxic effect extant at occupational exposures in the region of the OEL.
Jayjock
M A
MA
Rohm and Haas Company, Spring House, Pennsylvania 19477, USA. rstmaj@rohmhaas.com
Lewis
P G
PG
D000818:Animals; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006801:Humans; D019055:No-Observed-Adverse-Effect Level; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016272:Occupational Health