According to (USEPA IRIS 2011), the toxicity responses (dose responses) to heavy metals are given as the oral reference dose (RfD) and oral slope factor (SF)) by (mg/kg/day) and (mg/kg-day)1, respectively.
Does a health risk assessment (carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic analysis) require unit conversion from mg/l to mg/kg?
In other words, what is the unit of concentration of heavy metals to be used in all stages of the assessment of the risks of heavy metals ?
Thanks
Azzeddine
Humans can get exposed to various chemical substances via oral route (i.e, eating food, drinking groundwater, hand to mouth transfer). It is necessary to determine the maximum amount of a chemical that can be ingested on a daily basis to protect human health. That is why we need to calculate the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI). For pesticide residues and food contaminants, ADI may also be called Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI). The US Environmental Protection Agency has replaced ADI and TDI with the single term, reference dose (RfD).
For food additives or food contact additives and other consumer risk assessments, we calculate the ADI first, compare it with estimated exposure levels to determine whether risks are acceptable.
Unit of ADI
The unit of ADI for a chemical substance is mg/kg bw/d or mg/kg bw. It means xxx mg per kg body weight per day or mg per kg body weight.
Regards
Many thanks dear Bachir Achour for this excellent explanation
Your response made a lot of sense for me on this topic
Thanks again
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