HOT TOPICS | Low dose effects and endocrine disrupters

Toxicology and the evaluation of the safety of chemicals rest on the principle of Paracelsus. This Swiss alchemist, astrologer and doctor enunciated in the XVIth century that « everything is a poison, nothing is without poison, what makes the poison is the dose». From the point of view of regulatory toxicology, this is interpreted as meaning that it is theoretically possible to determine a threshold dose below which there would be no harmful effects.

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HOT TOPICS | new type of post on the blog

The blog will soon get some new types of posts for ‘hot topics’ in mixture toxicology, and the regulatory implementation of MixTox. Hot Topic posts will summarise a particular topic, and discussion of existing topics and proposals for new topics are very welcome. A list of hot topics is here, and comments are welcome through the blog or by contacting us.

UPCOMING MEETING | EFSA colloquium; Harmonisation of human and ecological risk assessment of combined exposure to multiple chemicals.

On 11th September 2014, Edinburgh, UK, EFSA will hold the EFSA Scientific Colloquium N°21: Harmonisation of human and ecological risk assessment of combined exposure to multiple chemicals.

Registration for the event has now closed.

MEETING REPORT | Adverse Outcome Pathways, NC3Rs, June 2014

The NC3Rs recently arranged a fascinating meeting on the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) concept, and its position in the future of toxicology. AOPs are the subject of ongoing activity at OECD and potentially invaluable tools are becoming available, for example the OECD AOP Wiki (no public access at present) and the effectopedia.

PUBLICATION | Martin et al. 2013 Urban Myths

A recent paper by Dr Martin (Martin, Scholze and Kortenkamp 2013) addressed the background and use of default uncertainty factors in chemical risk assessment. Mixture Toxicology often identifies issues in single chemical risk assessment that become especially problematic when mixture effects are considered.

INTRO | MixTox: towards regulatory implementation (TRI)

This blog accompanies a project at Brunel University that is working on how mixture toxicology concepts, theory and experimental results should be translated into routine use in chemical regulation. The project is funded by a grant from the Oak Foundation to Professor Andreas Kortenkamp, at the Institute for the Environment, Brunel University.

The project will consider different options for regulation of chemical mixtures, identify barriers and obstacles to implementation, and also identify opportunities and solutions to the issue of how best to achieve protection of human and environmental health from the potential adverse effects of multiple chemicals.

Any interested party should feel welcome to get in touch, via this blog or see the contact us page for contact details.