Carcinogen Risk Assessment

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter explains the importance of carcinogen risk assessment. It explains why it is important to assess risk, the legal and regulatory reasons, cancer prevention, avoiding hazards and relationships. The chapter also gives a detailed description upon basic notions of risk assessment, such as risk and rare events, risks to individuals, regulatory efforts, critique of early approaches, the national academy report, other developments, types of problems and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) approach. It explains about cancer and cancer statistics in relation to the cancer caused by specific agents, statistical considerations, causes of human cancer, proportionate risk, industrial exposure, food and cancer risks, and dietary risk factors. The chapter also focuses on laboratory data on risk. When risks are assessed based on data derived from animal experiments and other laboratory procedures, major controversies arise. It explains about animal data on carcinogens, long-term animal bioassays, short-term tests, extrapolation of dose-response data, what is the dose to use, animal to human dose conversions, and risk assessment from laboratory data. The need for testing hypotheses, air pollution epidemiology, and estimates from laboratory-based risk assessments in relation to the comparing epidemiology and laboratory results is described.