Courtesy of Edward J. Calabrese
Stylized curves that illustrate the linear, threshold, and hormetic dose-response models for carcinogens.
The central pillar upon which toxicological assessments are built is the dose-response relationship. But reliance on theoretical prediction models for dose response creates a wolf-crying atmosphere that generates fear and superfluous costs to the public. A better alternative exists, however. A rich vein of data supports hormetic dose-response modeling, which allows for the observation that some toxins, in small amounts, confer benefits rather than harm.
Having been relegated for years to the toxicological waste heap by misconception and inertia, hormesis is regaining respect, and I believe that such modeling will replace the outmoded standards in toxicology and may ultimately influence most areas of biological research.1
Since the consolidation of toxicological and pharmacological conceptual thinking in the 1930's, the overwhelmingly accepted dose-response model has been the threshold model, which assumes that toxins must ...
