Abstract
Effective and efficient assessment of the potential health effects from environmental chemicals requires well-validated tests to identify the toxicity of the chemical and then extensive scientific and analytical work to characterize the potential risk for humans in light of the relative potency of the chemical in test systems, the nature and routes of exposures for humans, and the differences in susceptibility across species and among human population subgroups. Such risk assessment is being applied increasingly for potential carcinogens and is beginning to be applied to mutagenic and teratogenic chemicals. One of the fertile areas for research is the study of mechanisms that may permit us to predict carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic activity of compounds from tests of each of these classes of end-points.
