An improved overall risk probability-based method for assessing the combined health risks of chemical mixtures: An example about mixture of aflatoxin B and microcystin LR by dietary intake.

Previous studies on the risk assessment of chemicals with respect to human health have focused mainly on the safety of individual substances. Recently, public health policy emphasizes the combined effects of mixtures. An overall risk probability (ORP)-based method long with the combined toxicity factor (c) can be used to evaluate the combined toxicity of chemical mixtures from the environment and foods on human health. However, the procedure for calculating the c accurately and quantitatively in the ORP method is yet unclear. In this study, an improved ORP-based method (IORP) was developed by introducing a variable time t, and the c was analyzed quantitatively using simultaneous equations and based on the principle of least squares regression. This phenomenon can be explained based on the example of the mixture of aflatoxin B (AFB) and microcystin LR (MC-LR) by dietary intake in order to understand the application of this method. The IORP approach makes it possible for estimating the combined effects of mixtures for human health by dietary pathway.