Regulatory decisions should be made in the most expert and informed way since they are precipitated by real and perceived threats to human health, under the glare of public scrutiny. In 1994, the National Research Council (NRC) reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) overall approach to assessing risks is fundamentally sound, but the Agency must more clearly establish the scientific and policy basis for risk estimates and better communicate the associated uncertainties. On March 21, 1995, USEPA issued a risk characterization policy and guidance. In this policy, an effective risk characterization must fully and clearly characterize risks and disclose the scientific analysis, uncertainties, assumptions, and science policy that underlie decisions throughout the risk assessment process. A number of regulatory reform bills which required risk characterization as part of all Federal risk assessments were introduced by the 104th Congress. The purpose of this workshop was to familiarize Society of Toxicology members with: (1) key elements to be considered in risk characterization and (2) new advances in risk characterization addressed by Federal and State agencies, industry, academia, NRC, and Presidential/Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management. Furthermore, the main objective was to engage the audience in discussing the proper role of science in risk assessment-risk management interface to make informed decisions in the face of scientific uncertainty.
The effects of fumonisin B1 (FB1) on the immune system of Sprague-Dawley rats were investigated. Groups of male and female rats (10 rats/group) were gavaged daily for 14 days with doses of 0, 5, 15, and 25 mg/kg body wt/day and the primary (IgM) response to sheep red blood cells expressed as plaque-forming cell numbers/10(6) spleen mononuclear leukocytes (PFC/10(6) splenocytes) and PFC/spleen was determined. There was a significant dose-related linear trend toward decreased PFC/10(6) splenocytes (p = 0.003) and PFC/spleen cells (p = 0.001) in the male rats. Body weights, expressed as a percentage of the control, were significantly reduced (p = 0.002) in the male rats administered 15 and 25 mg/kg doses. The PFC numbers in female rats were not affected significantly by treatment (p > 0.05). For the remaining immunotoxicity studies, groups of male rats (10 rats/group) were gavaged with FB1 doses of 0, 1, 5, and 15 mg/kg body wt/day for 14 days. There was a weakly significant dose-related trend toward increased numbers of serum immunoglobulin class G (p = 0.04). Also a significant dose-related increase (p = 0.013) in Listeria monocytogenes numbers was observed in the spleen at 24 hr postinfection. Treatment did not have a significant effect on organ weights, hematology, mitogen-induced lymphocyte transformation, calcium mobilization, the numbers of leukocytes and T-lymphocyte subsets, the natural killer cell activity, and phagocytosis (p >/= 0. 05). These observations suggested that FB1 may have indirect consequences for human health and warrant further investigations.