A Model for Low-Dose and Low-Dose-Rate Extrapolations of the Cancer

Risk Assessment Specialty Section (RASS) Monthly Webinar

Wednesday January 12 from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. (EST) (See below for Instructions on Webinar Access)

Selected “Silver Book” Highlights and Update on Related Activities

Daniel Krewski Professor and Director McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment and Risk Sciences International University of Ottawa

Abstract

The ‘NexGen’ Risk Assessment Framework will advance the field of risk assessment and will include three main building blocks: 1) Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century (NRC, 2007), 2) The McLaughlin Centre Framework for Population Health Risk Assessment (Krewski et al., 2007), and 3) Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment (NRC, 2009). The first building block, the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century report, provides a vision for the future of toxicity testing using high throughput screening assays and computational tools to predict chemical properties, and to identify perturbations pathways related to toxic outcomes. The risk assessment goal is to establish human exposure guidelines that will avoid these pathway perturbations. The second building block, the McLaughlin Centre Framework for Population Health Risk Assessment, integrates concepts of population health in the practice of traditional human health risk assessment. A comprehensive assessment of health risks in the general population would include examining biological, genetic, environmental, occupational, social, and behavioral determinants of health. The addition of this building block to the ‘NexGen’ framework will offer a multidisciplinary approach to the assessment and management of health risk issues. The third building block, the NRC’s Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment report (informally known as “The Silver Book”), provides guidance for new directions in risk assessment methodology and promotes early and thorough planning for each assessment. This emphasis on the first phase of problem formulation and scoping directs the assessment’s level and complexity. Together, the integration of these three building blocks will shape the ‘NexGen’ framework and aid the transition process from the current to the new paradigm to meet the demanding goals of human health risk assessment in the 21st century. References Krewski, D., Hogan, V., Turner, M.C., Zeman, P.L., McDowell, I., Edwards, N., and Losos, J. (2007). An integrated framework for risk management and population health. Human and Ecologicial Risk Assessment 13: 1288-1312. National Research Council (NRC). 2009. Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC. National Research Council (NRC). 2007. Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.