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Assessing Cumulative Health Risks from Exposure to Environmental Mixtures—Three Fundamental Questions

Differential exposure to mixtures of environmental agents, including biological, chemical, physical, and psychosocial stressors, can contribute to increased vulnerability of human populations and ecologic systems. Cumulative risk assessment is a tool for organizing and analyzing information to evalu...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sexton, Ken, Hattis, Dale
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 2007
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1867955/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17520074
http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9333
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author Sexton, Ken
Hattis, Dale
author_facet Sexton, Ken
Hattis, Dale
author_sort Sexton, Ken
collection PubMed
description Differential exposure to mixtures of environmental agents, including biological, chemical, physical, and psychosocial stressors, can contribute to increased vulnerability of human populations and ecologic systems. Cumulative risk assessment is a tool for organizing and analyzing information to evaluate the probability and seriousness of harmful effects caused by either simultaneous and/or sequential exposure to multiple environmental stressors. In this article we focus on elucidating key challenges that must be addressed to determine whether and to what degree differential exposure to environmental mixtures contributes to increased vulnerability of exposed populations. In particular, the emphasis is on examining three fundamental and interrelated questions that must be addressed as part of the process to assess cumulative risk: a) Which mixtures are most important from a public health perspective? and b) What is the nature (i.e., duration, frequency, timing) and magnitude (i.e., exposure concentration and dose) of relevant cumulative exposures for the population of interest? c) What is the mechanism (e.g., toxicokinetic or toxicodynamic) and consequence (e.g., additive, less than additive, more than additive) of the mixture’s interactive effects on exposed populations? The focus is primarily on human health effects from chemical mixtures, and the goal is to reinforce the need for improved assessment of cumulative exposure and better understanding of the biological mechanisms that determine toxicologic interactions among mixture constituents.
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spelling pubmed-18679552007-06-07 Assessing Cumulative Health Risks from Exposure to Environmental Mixtures—Three Fundamental Questions Sexton, Ken Hattis, Dale Environ Health Perspect Research Differential exposure to mixtures of environmental agents, including biological, chemical, physical, and psychosocial stressors, can contribute to increased vulnerability of human populations and ecologic systems. Cumulative risk assessment is a tool for organizing and analyzing information to evaluate the probability and seriousness of harmful effects caused by either simultaneous and/or sequential exposure to multiple environmental stressors. In this article we focus on elucidating key challenges that must be addressed to determine whether and to what degree differential exposure to environmental mixtures contributes to increased vulnerability of exposed populations. In particular, the emphasis is on examining three fundamental and interrelated questions that must be addressed as part of the process to assess cumulative risk: a) Which mixtures are most important from a public health perspective? and b) What is the nature (i.e., duration, frequency, timing) and magnitude (i.e., exposure concentration and dose) of relevant cumulative exposures for the population of interest? c) What is the mechanism (e.g., toxicokinetic or toxicodynamic) and consequence (e.g., additive, less than additive, more than additive) of the mixture’s interactive effects on exposed populations? The focus is primarily on human health effects from chemical mixtures, and the goal is to reinforce the need for improved assessment of cumulative exposure and better understanding of the biological mechanisms that determine toxicologic interactions among mixture constituents. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 2007-05 2007-01-24 /pmc/articles/PMC1867955/ /pubmed/17520074 http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9333 Text en http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ Publication of EHP lies in the public domain and is therefore without copyright. All text from EHP may be reprinted freely. Use of materials published in EHP should be acknowledged (for example, ?Reproduced with permission from Environmental Health Perspectives?); pertinent reference information should be provided for the article from which the material was reproduced. Articles from EHP, especially the News section, may contain photographs or illustrations copyrighted by other commercial organizations or individuals that may not be used without obtaining prior approval from the holder of the copyright.
spellingShingle Research
Sexton, Ken
Hattis, Dale
Assessing Cumulative Health Risks from Exposure to Environmental Mixtures—Three Fundamental Questions
title Assessing Cumulative Health Risks from Exposure to Environmental Mixtures—Three Fundamental Questions
title_full Assessing Cumulative Health Risks from Exposure to Environmental Mixtures—Three Fundamental Questions
title_fullStr Assessing Cumulative Health Risks from Exposure to Environmental Mixtures—Three Fundamental Questions
title_full_unstemmed Assessing Cumulative Health Risks from Exposure to Environmental Mixtures—Three Fundamental Questions
title_short Assessing Cumulative Health Risks from Exposure to Environmental Mixtures—Three Fundamental Questions
title_sort assessing cumulative health risks from exposure to environmental mixtures—three fundamental questions
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1867955/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17520074
http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9333
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