Approaches Used in the Hazard Assessment of Chemical Mixtures

5 APPROACHES USED IN THE HAZARD ASSESSMENT OF CHEMICAL MIXTURES 

Various approaches have been suggested in the scientific literature for use in the evaluation of the health risks from exposure to mixtures of chemicals. Most attention and effort has been devoted to procedures to assess cumulative effects of exposure to chemicals that act by a similar mechanism/mode of action (US-EPA 2000a), in which case the concept of dose addition applies. 

However, the Dutch group around Victor Feron (Groten et al. 2001, Feron and Groten 2002, Jonker et al. 2004), as well as US-EPA (1999, 2000b) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR 2004) have suggested approaches that cover also chemicals that differ in their modes of action. 

1 Procedures Used to Assess Cumulative Effects of Chemicals That Act by a 

Common Mechanism of Action Cumulative Risk Assessment by Dose Addition 

---