A Bad Mix: Exposure May Be "Safe" Only With One Chemical at a Time
Environmental Health News
Christiansen S, M Scholze, M Dalgaard, AM Vinggaard, Marta Axelstad, Andreas Kortenkamp and Ulla Hass.
September 1, 2009
Exposure to a mixture of environmental chemicals is far more harmful to male rats than exposure to the individual chemicals would predict, even when the level of each contaminant in the mixture causes no effect by itself. The results indicate that assessing the risk of chemicals one-compound-at-a-time will underestimate potential harm. People are exposed to hundreds of chemicals at a time, if not more. People could be affected by mixtures of chemicals that are currently considered “safe” based on their individual toxicities.