Assessing and Managing Health Risks from Drinking Water Contamination: Approaches and Applications

The hazards for humans and the environment are readily apparent in chemical emergencies. On the other hand, the risks from nongenotoxic effects of chronic exposures to low levels of chemicals are poorly understood. In particular, developmental toxicity studies should pay greater attention to the identification and biological evaluation of subtle effects as early indicators of damage and to the definition of doseresponse relationships and risk estimates, particularly the "benchmark" dose. In this present paper we briefly discuss two examples of subtle developmental alterations of the axial skeleton and the kidney which are induced by the herbicides Bromoxynil and Dinoseb, respectively.