Mixture toxicity: Can toxicant body residues advance the state of the art?
- L.S. McCarty Scientific Research and Consulting, Oakville, Ontario (Canada)
Residue-based toxicity interpretation for organic chemicals in aquatic systems has recently been reviewed by McCarty and Mackay. Several conclusions can be drawn: (1) ranges of body residues are associated with different modes of toxic action, (2) ranges of body residues are associated with various acute and chronic bioassay endpoints, and (3) exposure-based estimates of dose are often much less reliable and subject to more confounding factors than organism-based dose estimates. These conclusions have substantial significance for mixture toxicity. The dominant paradigm for examining mixture toxicity is the toxic unit (TU) concept, which has been used in environmental toxicity for several decades. The TU approach basically categorizes the toxicity of a mixture as additive, synergistic, antagonistic, or noninteractive. It offers little in the way of a scientific explanation of why mixtures are placed in the defined categories and offers no predictive capability. There are advantages to using residue-based toxicity data in a TU unit approach if some of the limitations exposure-based toxicity bioassay data can be overcome. Solutions and their limitations are reviewed. Finally, an outline of a classification system employing a residue-based mode-of-action methodology, and having both descriptive and predictive capabilities, is proposed and reviewed.
- OSTI ID:
- 42895
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9410273-; TRN: IM9521%%59
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 15. annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), Denver, CO (United States), 30 Oct - 3 Nov 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 15th annual meeting: Abstract book. Ecological risk: Science, policy, law, and perception; PB: 286 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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