Trends in development of structure and contents of information support for assessing risk associated with chemical exposures upon inhalation and oral introduction (literature review)

Human-induced chemical burdens are growing persistently at the moment bringing relevance to development of structure and contents of the national information support for health risk assessment. This reflects the development potential of Russian science-based information system necessary for health risk analysis and is also relevant for supporting assessment, prevention and mitigation of risks associated with negative effects produced by chemical exposures on human health.

This study provides the results of reviewing contents of up-to-date information databases that contain indicators for assessing human health risks associated with exposure to adverse chemicals in the environment. These results taken into account, we have determined basic trends in development of information support for health risk assessment in Russia. They include developing a system for reference values; providing each component in information support with substantiating materials; adding uncertainty categories to indicator values for risk assessment; clarifying effects produced by chemicals considering their toxicity pathways; including indicators of the Concentration – Response function and parameters of the Exposure – Response mathematical models; supplementing the information database with data about biomarkers of exposure, effects and sensitivity with their quantitative characteristics; including tolerable daily intake (TDI) doses along with reference doses (RfD) for assessing health risks upon oral introduction with food.

The suggested structure of information support is quite promising for creating a Russian digital database as an integral component in the intellectual system for supporting decision-making on provision of sanitary-epidemiological wellbeing of the country population. Implementation of the outlined trends will raise quality and reliability of health risk assessments, reduce uncertainty, and provide transparence and reproducibility of calculation procedures. This corresponds to the tasks aimed at preventing and minimizing risks associated with negative effects of chemical exposures, providing better protection for the population and the environment as stipulated in the Order by the President of the Russian Federation No. 97 dated March 11, 2019.