Risk, Toxicology, and Human Health
Risk, Toxicology, and Human Health
Risk, Toxicology, and Human Health
Anwar Daud
What is risk?
Risk is expressed in
probabilities.
Example: The lifetime
risk of developing lung
cancer is 1 in 250 from
smoking a pack a day
Plane crash: 1 in 10 million
Lightning: 1 in 1.4 million
House Fire: 1 in 200
Toxicology
Fig. 19-4 p. 411
Toxicity
Dosage
Bioaccumulation
Biomagnification
Synergism
Response
Acute effect
Chronic effect
TOXICOLOGY: Assessing
Chemical Hazards
Toxicity: measure of how
harmful a substance is
in causing injury,
illness, or death to
living organisms.
FACTORS AFFECTING
TOXICITY:
1) Dose: the amount of
substance ingested,
inhaled or absorbed.
Bioaccumulation
Biomagnifications
Principles of Toxicology
Any synthetic or natural
chemical can be
harmful if ingested in
large enough quantity.
Principles of Toxicology
Trace amounts of chemicals
in the environment may
or may not be harmful.
Some say they are not, look
at life expectancy over
last several centuries.
Some say they are, look at
cancer rates and say it is
hard to know long-term
impacts.
Poisons
Median lethal
dose (LD50): at
what dosage does
the toxin kill 50% of
animals (usually
mice or rats)
Principles of Toxicology
How do scientists
determine toxicity:
1) Epidemiologic case
studies
2) Animal Testing
(usually with control
groups)
3) Computer modeling
Dose-Response Curves
Dose-response Nonthreshold Threshold
Principles of Toxicology
How good are the
estimates of
toxicology?
There are serious
limitations to all these
types of studies.
Therefore, most allowable
limits are set well
below estimated
harmful levels.
Toxic Chemical: a
chemical through that
can cause temporary or
permanent harm or
death.
Hazardous Chemical: can
harm humans because it
is flammable or
explosive.
Toxicologist know a
great deal about a
few chemicals, a
little about many, and
nothing about most.
Chemical Hazards
Hazardous chemicals
Mutagens
Teratogens
Carcinogens
Neurotoxins
Hormonally active agents
Precautionary principle
Bioterrorism
Possible targets: air, water, and food
Inexpensive
Fairly easy to produce biological agents
Recombinant DNA techniques
Refer to Fig. 19-16 p. 427
Risk Analysis
Risk analysis
Comparative risk analysis
System reliability
Risk management
Risk perception
Risk Analysis