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. 2022 Sep:31:100358.
doi: 10.1016/j.cotox.2022.100358. Epub 2022 Jun 9.

Mixture Math: Deciding What to Add in a Cumulative Risk Assessment

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Mixture Math: Deciding What to Add in a Cumulative Risk Assessment

Cynthia V Rider. Curr Opin Toxicol. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Component-based approaches for cumulative risk assessment provide an important tool for informing public health policy. While current quantitative cumulative risk assessments focus narrowly on pesticides that share a mechanism of action, growing scientific evidence supports expansion of their application to encompass stressors that target a common disease. Case studies have demonstrated dose additive effects of chemicals with different mechanisms of action on liver steatosis, craniofacial malformations, and male reproductive tract developmental disruption. Evidence also suggests that nonchemical stressors such as noise or psychosocial stress can modify effects of chemicals. Focused research attention is required before nonchemical stressors can routinely be included in quantitative cumulative risk assessments.

Keywords: combined exposures; component-based; concentration addition; dose addition; mixtures.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Comparison of approaches for cumulative risk assessment based on chemicals that share a mechanism of action (top panel) or based on chemical and nonchemical stressors that target a common disease (bottom panel). PM = particulate matter. See an example of the common mechanism deliberation in reference [17] and the disease-based pathway in reference [33].

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