New report explores the effects of chemical co-exposures at doses relevant for human safety assessments

Technical Report No. 115: Effects of Chemical Co-exposures at Doses Relevant for Human Safety Assessments

Chemical regulation is mainly based on single substances, but exposure is to complex mixtures, which raises the question of whether the regulatory framework is adequate and protective. There has long been an interest in the toxicology of mixtures, but most studies have been conducted at effect levels for the components of a mixture. This review focusses specifically on studies where a mixture has been tested at doses which are at or below the NO(A)EL for every component of the mixture. This is the only dose region in which mixture toxicity could threaten regulatory safety margins. A thorough literature review was conducted using this selection criterion and others, for example only studies using models of mammalian systems were considered.

The Summary and link to download the report free of charge are available at http://bit.ly/ecetoc-tr115

The accompanying Appendix B - Evaluation of primary references can be downloaded from http://bit.ly/ecetoc-tr115-App-B