Cumulative Risk: Toxicity and Interactions of Physical and Chemical Stressors

Abstract

Recent efforts to update cumulative risk assessment procedures to incorporate nonchemical stressors ranging from physical to psychosocial reflect increased interest in consideration of the totality of variables affecting human health and the growing desire to develop community-based risk assessment methods. A key roadblock is the uncertainty as to how nonchemical stressors behave in relationship to chemical stressors. Physical stressors offer a reasonable starting place for measuring the effects of nonchemical stressors and their modulation of chemical effects (and vice versa), as they clearly differ from chemical stressors; and "doses" of many physical stressors are more easily quantifiable than those of psychosocial stressors. There is a commonly held belief that virtually nothing is known about the impact of nonchemical stressors on chemically mediated toxicity or the joint impact of coexposure to chemical and nonchemical stressors. Although this is generally true, there are several instances where a substantial body of evidence exists. A workshop titled "Cumulative Risk: Toxicity and Interactions of Physical and Chemical Stressors" held at the 2013 Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting provided a forum for discussion of research addressing the toxicity of physical stressors and what is known about their interactions with chemical stressors, both in terms of exposure and effects. Physical stressors including sunlight, heat, radiation, infectious disease, and noise were discussed in reference to identifying pathways of interaction with chemical stressors, data gaps, and suggestions for future incorporation into cumulative risk assessments.

Cumulative risk assessment lessons learned: A review of case studies and issue papers

“…The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) assessed the utility of using a ''common adverse outcome'' approach to accommodate chemicals with dissimilar modes of action (EFSA, 2013). In addition, workshops have been held to evaluate how emerging data streams can be used to characterize human variability to address some aspects of population vulnerability (Zeise et al, 2013) as well as on new approaches for incorporating nonchemical stressors into CRA, including a systems-based approach for predicting the interactions between physical and chemical stressors (Rider et al, 2014).…”

A Comparative Land Use-Based Analysis of Noise Pollution Levels in Selected Urban Centers of Nigeria

“…This presupposes that noise pollution can be described as any form of noise, usually resulting from man’s activities, and that has either a prolonged or short duration but is perceived by the hearers as disturbing, and also has the potential of causing short- or long-term negative effects on the affected person’s complete state of wellbeing [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. In addition to creating a nuisance to the urban environment, noise pollution has been associated with psychological [ 53 , 54 , 55 ], physiological [ 56 , 57 , 58 ], and physical effects on exposed populations [ 59 , 60 , 61 ]. In specific terms, deafness, tinnitus, cardiac problems, such as hypertension ischemic heart disease and vasoconstriction, sleep interferences, headaches, fatigue, stomach ulcers, vertigo, and aggression have been attributed to noise pollution [ 62 , 63 ].…”

Regulatory assessment and risk management of chemical mixtures: challenges and ways forward

“…Examples include an application to urban populations (Andrianou and Makris 2018) and the linking between mechanistic information using the AOP concept and the (eco)exposome ). The interplay with non-chemical stressors has been shown for combined stress resulting from physical stress (such as sunlight, heat, radiation, infectious disease, and noise) and chemical stress in Rider et al (2014).…”