Hormesis and Risk Assessment

Abstract

The hormetic dose-response model has experienced a strong resurgence of interest in toxicology, risk assessment and pharmacology. This is based on its capacity for validation, reproducibility, generalizability, and its demonstrated ability to predict low-dose responses far more accurately than threshold and linear-at-low-dose models. This paper assesses capacity of hormesis models to impact the current risk assessment process, as well as the implications for risk assessment if regulatory agencies were to accept the hormetic dose-response as the default model. Keywords: hormesis; biphasic; dose-response; adaptive response; risk assessment; U-shaped; J-shaped