Regulacje i polityka gospodarcza · 28.12.1998

Benchmark Dose Software

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the availability of, and requests public comment on, the beta test version of Benchmark Dose Software (BMDS) (version 1.1b). The BMDS system is being developed as a tool to facilitate the application of a benchmark dose (BMD) method to EPA risk assessments of hazardous pollutants. The EPA Risk Assessment Forum has written guidelines for the use of the BMD approach in the assessment of noncancer health risk (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1995, EPA/630/R-94/007) and the EPA Benchmark Dose Workgroup is in the process of drafting technical guidance for the application of the BMD approach in cancer and noncancer dose-response assessments. The use of BMD methods involves fitting mathematical models to dose-response data and using the results to select a BMD that is associated with a predetermined benchmark response (BMR), such as a 10% increase in the incidence of a particular health effect. The EPA BMDS facilitates these operations by providing an easy-to-use interface to run up to sixteen (16) different models that are appropriate for the analysis of dichotomous (quantal) data (nine models: Gamma, Logistic, Log-Logisi