摘要:This paper reviews the role of toxicological studies in understanding the health effects of environmental exposures to mixtures. The approach taken is to review mixtures that have received the greatest emphasis from toxicology; major mixtures research programs; the toxicologist's view of mixtures and approaches to their study; and the complementary roles of toxicological, clinical, and epidemiological studies. Studies of tobacco smoke, engine exhaust, combustion products, and air pollutants comprise most of the past research on mixtures. Because of their great experimental control over subjects, exposures, and endpoints, toxicologists tend to consider a wider range of toxic interactions among mixture components and sequential exposures than is practical for human studies. The three fundamental experimental approaches used by toxicologists are integrative (studying the mixture as a whole), dissective (dissecting a mixture to determine causative constituents), and synthetic (studying interactions between agents in simple combinations). Toxicology provides information on potential hazards, mechanisms by which mixture constituents interact to cause effects, and exposure dose-effect relationships; but extrapolation from laboratory data to quantitative human health risks is problematic. Toxicological, clinical, and epidemiological approaches are complementary but are seldom coordinated. Fostering synergistic interactions among the disciplines in studying the risks from mixtures could be advantageous. Full text Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (2.6M), or click on a page image below to browse page by page. Links to PubMed are also available for Selected References . 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165