Dose Response Complexities
Most chemicals display a classic dose response curve - at a low dose (below a threshold), no effect is observed. Some show a phenomenon known as sufficient challenge - a small exposure produces animals that "grow more rapidly, have better general appearance and coat quality, have fewer tumors, and live longer than the control animals". A few chemicals have no well-defined safe level of exposure. These are treated with special care. Some chemicals are subject to bioaccumulation as they are stored in rather than being excreted from the body. These also receive special consideration.
Read more about this topic: Toxicology
Famous quotes containing the words dose, response and/or complexities:
“Whipping and abuse are like laudanum: you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.”
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)
“It’s given new meaning to me of the scientific term black hole.”
—Don Logan, U.S. businessman, president and chief executive of Time Inc. His response when asked how much his company had spent in the last year to develop Pathfinder, Time Inc.’S site on the World Wide Web. Quoted in New York Times, p. D7 (November 13, 1995)
“From infancy, a growing girl creates a tapestry of ever-deepening and ever- enlarging relationships, with her self at the center. . . . The feminine personality comes to define itself within relationship and connection, where growth includes greater and greater complexities of interaction.”
—Jeanne Elium (20th century)