How much is enough to accept hormesis as the default? or 'At what point, if ever, could/should hormesis be employed as the principal dose-response default assumption in risk assessment?'.
Hormesis as the principal human dose-response default assumption must reasonably await the development of the science of toxicology and molecular biology before this dramatic change can occur. The inherent quality of typical toxicological data is simply too limited to allow for an understanding of what really occurs in human tissues at the relatively low doses generally extant in the environment. Thus, forwarding or asserting the quantitative use of hormesis (or any model of low dose-response) without this reasonable knowledge is simply an argument without data. It is this writer's opinion that any widespread and default acceptance of hormesis will need to look forward to and draw upon the inevitable development and use of tools from the realm of molecular biology and a resulting and distinct change in the entire toxicological testing paradigm.
Jayjock
Michael A
MA
The LifeLine Group, Langhorne, PA 19047, USA. MJayjock@aol.com
D000818:Animals; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000639:trends*; D019055:No-Observed-Adverse-Effect Level; D040901:Proteomics; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D014116:Toxicology / Q000639:trends*