An evaluation of risk estimation procedures for mixtures of carcinogens
The estimation of health risks from exposure to a mixture of chemical carcinogens is generally based on the combination of information from several available single compound studies. The current practice of directly summing the upper bound risk estimates of individual carcinogenic components as an upper bound on the total risk of a mixture is known to be generally too conservative. Gaylor and Chen (1996, Risk Analysis) proposed a simple procedure to compute an upper bound on the total risk using only the upper confidence limits and central risk estimates of individual carcinogens. The Gaylor-Chen procedure was derived based on an underlying assumption of the normality for the distributions of individual risk estimates. IN this paper the authors evaluated the Gaylor-Chen approach in terms the coverages of the upper confidence limits on the true risks of individual carcinogens. In general, if the coverage probabilities for the individual carcinogens are all approximately equal to the nominal level, then the Gaylor-Chen approach should perform well. However, the Gaylor-Chen approach can be conservative or anti-conservative if some of all individual upper confidence limit estimates are conservative or anti-conservative.
- Research Organization:
- Inst. of Statistical Science Academia Sinica, Taipei (TW)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
- OSTI ID:
- 20006167
- Journal Information:
- Risk Analysis, Journal Name: Risk Analysis Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 19; ISSN 0272-4332; ISSN RIANDF
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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