Assessment of combined exposures to multiple chemicals
Regulators and other risk assessors need to estimate the combined risks arising from real-life exposure to multiple chemical agents and repeated exposures.
In March 2007, IPCS convened an international workshop on current issues in aggregate/cumulative risk assessment. The workshop discussed methods for assessing the combined risk from exposure to one or more agents (with or without a common mechanism-of-action) via all relevant routes and pathways, and initiated the development of a framework for such assessments.
A draft WHO/IPCS Framework for Risk Assessment of Combined Exposures to Multiple Chemicals was released for public comment in 2009, together with two case studies.
The Framework and additional case studies were further developed during 2010 and subsequently published as:
M.E. (Bette) Meek, Alan R. Boobis, Kevin M. Crofton, Gerhard Heinemeyer, Marcel Van Raaij, Carolyn Vickers (2011)
The published article is available free of charge on Open Access from the link provided above.