In this lecture, students will learn that the society’s risk and health perceptions have great influences over how health statutes are passed and regulated. These perceptions also have an indirect, if not a direct, effect on the way in which health risk assessments (RA) are conducted or processed. This (in)direct effect is brought about mainly through guidance provided for the conduct of valid toxicity studies, and through the resources and efforts put into the developments of assessment methods and related areas. Toxicity studies are those toxicologic experiments or clinical trials in which the adverse effects from exposure to a toxic agent are to be determined or characterized.

Students will also learn that both the toxicity studies conducted for RA and the related research developments are impacted upon heavily by health statutes and health regulations. Meanwhile, both the toxicity studies and the techniques developed for RA also play an important role in setting the course of regulatory actions. The advances in analytical techniques and in risk assessment methods are related closely to the types of toxicity studies that can or should be conducted.

Finally, students will be taught that the circular linkages among the four key elements together lend a very close relationship between toxicology and RA at the technical level. Such an intimate relationship is not only bi-directional, but also very dynamic and tangled.