Toxicological dose assessment and acute health effect criteria

The use of hazardous materials requires the means of assessing doses from postulated accidental exposures to the hazardous materials. Hazardous materials include radiological and toxicological substances. Health effects are often divided into either acute (short term exposure) or chronic (long-term-exposure)-categories. Dose assessments and health effects are used in Hazard Classification, Safety Analysis Reports and Unreviewed Safety Question Determinations. The use of hazardous substances requires a means of assessing the potential health effects from exposure. Two types of toxicological data exist. The first is measured effects from human exposure, either accidentally or studies. The second consists of data from toxicity and lethality studies on mammals, often mice or rats. Because the data for human exposure is severely limited, an approach is needed that uses basic toxicity and lethality data from animal studies to estimate acute health effects in humans. The approach chosen is the one suggested jointly by the EPA, FEMA, and DOT in their ''Technical Guidance for Hazards Analysis'', December 1987