Scientific Frontiers in Developmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment (2000) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 10-16
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From page 10... ...
One reason for this concern is that only a fraction of the 60,000 to 90,000 chemicals in commercial use have been evaluated for their potential to cause developmental toxicity. Human-health concerns about environmental agents require that scientists and regulators attempt to understand and protect against the potential hazards of those agents on developing embryos, fetuses, and children.
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From page 11... ...
The specific tasks of the committee were as follows: evaluate the evidence supporting hypothesized mechanisms of developmental toxicity; evaluate the state of the science on testing for mechanisms of developmental effects; evaluate how that information can be used to improve qualitative and quantitative risk assessment for developmental effects; and develop recommendations for future research in developmental toxicology and developmental biology; focusing on those areas most likely to assist in risk assessment for developmental defects. BACKGROUND Awareness of developmental toxicants increased greatly in the early 1960s when the detrimental effect of thalidomide (used at that time as a sedative/hypnotic)
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From page 12... ...
Although many risk assessors would prefer to use mechanism-based empirical data instead of those defaults (up to a 10,000-fold compounded reduction in acceptable human exposure beyond that given by the animal test) to improve their risk assessments for environmental agents, the test data for the assessors' use often are sparse because of limited resources and are of unknown applicability to humans because of a lack of understanding of basic mechanisms of developmental toxicity and of differences in humans and animals.
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From page 13... ...
that are not adequately tested for potential developmental toxicity, scientists have been asked to develop testing approaches that are based on our rapidly expanding knowledge of normal development to provide more timely information with improved predictions for human developmental outcomes. These issues are ongoing challenges in the effort to assess human risk from environmental toxicants.
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From page 14... ...
The large-scale projects initiated under the Human Genome Project include the complete sequencing of the genomes of several widely used model organisms, such as yeast, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, the laboratory mouse, and humans. The sequencing of the yeast, C
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From page 15... ...
that evaluates recent revolutionary advances in the understanding of normal development and gene-environment interactions and in the technology connected to the Human Genome Project and assesses whether these advances provide opportunities for innovation in developmental toxicology and risk assessment. In its report, the committee attempts to make broad-based interdisciplinary proposals by drawing on information from several fields of science developmental toxicology, developmental biology, molecular biology, epidemiology, and genetics all of which impinge on the understanding of the action of developmental toxicants.
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From page 16... ...
Chapter 7 discusses new approaches for using model organisms to test chemicals for developmental toxicity, stressing the value of using those organisms for which development is well understood and for which genetic manipulation can be performed to optimize their usefulness. Chapter 8 outlines a novel multilevel, multidisciplinary approach to improve understanding of the mechanisms of action of toxicants and to improve developmental toxicity risk assessment by applying the recent advances in developmental biology and genomics.
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