Publication
Title
The linear no-threshold model is less realistic than threshold or hormesis-based models : an evolutionary perspective
Author
Abstract
C The linear no-threshold (LNT) risk model is the current human health risk assessment paradigm. This model states that adverse stochastic biological responses to high levels of a stressor can be used to estimate the response to low or moderate levels of that stressor. In recent years the validity of the LNT risk model has increasingly been questioned because of the recurring observation that an organism's response to high stressor doses differs from that to low doses. This raises important questions about the biological and evolutionary validity of the LNT model. In this review we reiterate that the LNT model as applied to stochastic biological effects of low and moderate stressor levels has less biological validity than threshold or, particularly, hormetic models. In so doing, we rely heavily on literature from disciplines like ecophysiology or evolutionary ecology showing how exposure to moderate amounts of stress can have severe impacts on phenotype and organism reproductive fitness. We present a mathematical model that illustrates and explores the hypothetical conditions that make a particular kind of hormesis (conditioning hormesis) ecologically and evolutionarily plausible.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Chemico-biological interactions. - Amsterdam
Publication
Clare : Elsevier ireland ltd , 2019
ISSN
0009-2797
DOI
10.1016/J.CBI.2018.10.007
Volume/pages
301 (2019) , p. 26-33
ISI
000460122700004
Pubmed ID
30342016
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 04.04.2019
Last edited 02.10.2024
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