The Role of Hormesis in Industrial Hygiene/occupational Health

Jayjock and Lewis’ study “Implication of Hormesisfor Industrial Hygiene” represents a challenge for thescientific community to consider hormesis as a possibleworking hypothesis for redefining risk assessmentstrategy for low-dose exposures in the realm of IndustrialHygiene. This invited commentary aims at examiningsome aspects of the study for which no proven andconclusive scientific evidence has yet been found, such asthe limited nature of some statistical tests, the calculationof the safety factor, the place occupied by hormesis inIndustrial Hygiene and finally the impact that scarce knowledge of this phenomenon and rejection by part ofthe scientific community has on the possibility of usinghormesis in the safeguarding of workers’ health.