摘要：Figures See all figures Authors Francelyne Marano , Robert Barouki Université Paris Diderot Laboratoire des réponses moléculaires et cellulaires aux xénobiotiques (RMCX) Unité de biologie fonctionnelle et adaptative (BFA) CNRS EAC 7059 Case 7073 Bâtiment Buffon 3 e étage 4, rue Marie-Andrée Lagroua Weill-Hallé 75 205 Paris cedex 13 France, Université Paris Descartes Inserm UMR-S 747 45, rue des Saints Pères 75270 Paris 06 France Key words: environmental health, risk assessment, toxicology DOI : 10.1684/ers.2006.0014. Page(s) : 404-11 Published in: 2011 Increasing evidence implicates environmental pollutants in the development of a variety of human diseases and of an imbalance in the ecosystem. These findings in turn create strong social expectations of better risk assessment, increased caution, and improved prediction of detrimental effects. The less than completely satisfactory results from current toxicity tests have led toxicologists to seek to use the major scientific progress of recent years to develop new tests. Accordingly, biologists have recently worked out more systemic, integrated and quantitative approaches, and several study groups in France and abroad have concluded that these should lead to a better assessment of the mechanisms of toxicity. This mechanistic approach should facilitate our understanding of low-dose, mixture and long-term effects. Understanding the mechanisms is definitely necessary but it is not sufficient. More work should be devoted to the development of new tests based on methods that can replace animal testing, and these tests should be shown to be more predictive and better suited than traditional ones to address current issues in risk assessment. Clearly, regardless of each individual's optimism or scepticism, we have here a major challenge that we must address if we hope to respond to critical scientific issues as well as social, economic and political questions and expectations.
