ON REFERENCE DOSE (RFD) AND ITS UNDERLYING TOXICITY DATA-BASE

The toxicity data of pesticides were summarized and compared amongst different animal species and types of bioassays. These comparisons showed the expected inter-species and inter-bioassay variability. After quantitative and statistical analysis of these data, it was concluded that, on the average, a 2-year dog bioassay detected toxic responses at similar doses as a 2-year rat study, and that both of these bioassays detected toxic responses at lower doses than either a rat 2-generation bioassay, a rat developmental toxicity study, or a 2-year mouse bioassay. Although these chronic dog and rat bioassays were found to detect toxic responses at lower doses than the other studies listed, this analysis does not reflect the seriousness of the effects that were compared. Within the confines of this analysis, then, it appears that a 2-year dog and rat study, reproductive and developmental bioassays are a sufficient data base on which to estimate high confidence Reference Doses (RfDs), and furthermore, that an additional uncertainty factor is needed to estimate RfDs to account for this inter-species and inter-bioassay variability when fewer than this number of bioassays are available.