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Science Policy Choices and the Estimation of Cancer Risk Associated with Exposure to TCDD
Author(s) -
Gough Michael
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1988.tb00496.x
Subject(s) - compromise , carcinogen , agency (philosophy) , threshold dose , estimation , international agency , risk assessment , tetrachlorodibenzo p dioxin , environmental health , toxicology , risk analysis (engineering) , econometrics , business , computer science , political science , medicine , biology , economics , toxicity , genetics , computer security , sociology , law , social science , management
United States regulatory agencies use no‐threshold models for estimating carcinogenic risks. Other countries use no‐threshold models for carcinogens that are genotoxic and threshold models for carcinogens that are not genotoxic, such as 2, 3, 7, 8‐tetrachlorodibenzo‐ P ‐dioxin (TCDD or “dioxin”). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a revision of the carcinogenic potency estimate for TCDD that is based on neither a threshold nor a no‐threshold model; instead, it is a compromise between risk numbers generated by the two irreconcilably different models. This paper discusses the revision and its implications.