No evidence of dioxin cancer threshold.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed an estimate of the human cancer risk from dioxin, using the standard low-dose linear extrapolation approach. This estimate has been controversial because of concern that it may overestimate the cancer risk. An alternative approach has been published and was presented to the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board's Dioxin Review Panel in November 2000. That approach suggests that dioxin is a threshold carcinogen and that the threshold is an order of magnitude above the exposure levels of the general population. We have reexamined the threshold analysis and found that the data have been incorrectly weighted by cohort size. In our reanalysis, without the incorrect weighting, the threshold effect disappears.
Mackie
David
D
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, New Jersey 08544, USA.
Liu
Junfeng
J
Loh
Yeong-Shang
YS
Thomas
Valerie
V
D002273:Carcinogens / Q000633:toxicity*; D004147:Dioxins / Q000506:poisoning*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D011634:Public Health; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment; D020711:Threshold Limit Values; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency
D002273:Carcinogens; D004147:Dioxins