Consumer and Clinical Radiation Protection Bureau, Health Canada, Ottawa, Canada.
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, Canada.
Int J Radiat Biol. 2021;97(4):431-441. doi: 10.1080/09553002.2021.1884314. Epub 2021 Mar 1.
Decades of research to understand the impacts of various types of environmental occupational and medical stressors on human health have produced a vast amount of data across many scientific disciplines. Organizing these data in a meaningful way to support risk assessment has been a significant challenge. To address this and other challenges in modernizing chemical health risk assessment, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) formalized the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) framework, an approach to consolidate knowledge into measurable key events (KEs) at various levels of biological organisation causally linked to disease based on the weight of scientific evidence (http://oe.cd/aops). Currently, AOPs have been considered predominantly in chemical safety but are relevant to radiation. In this context, the Nuclear Energy Agency's (NEA's) High-Level Group on Low Dose Research (HLG-LDR) is working to improve research co-ordination, including radiological research with chemical research, identify synergies between the fields and to avoid duplication of efforts and resource investments. To this end, a virtual workshop was held on 7 and 8 October 2020 with experts from the OECD AOP Programme together with the radiation and chemical research/regulation communities. The workshop was a coordinated effort of Health Canada, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). The AOP approach was discussed including key issues to fully embrace its value and catalyze implementation in areas of radiation risk assessment.
A joint chemical and radiological expert group was proposed as a means to encourage cooperation between risk assessors and an initial vision was discussed on a path forward. A global survey was suggested as a way to identify priority health outcomes of regulatory interest for AOP development. Multidisciplinary teams are needed to address the challenge of producing the appropriate data for risk assessments. Data management and machine learning tools were highlighted as a way to progress from weight of evidence to computational causal inference.
几十年来，为了了解各种类型的环境职业和医学应激源对人类健康的影响，许多科学学科都产生了大量的数据。以有意义的方式组织这些数据以支持风险评估一直是一项重大挑战。为了解决这一问题以及化学健康风险评估现代化的其他挑战，经济合作与发展组织（OECD）正式制定了不良结局途径（AOP）框架，这是一种将知识整合到可衡量的关键事件（KEs）中的方法，这些 KEs 可以在不同水平的生物组织中因果关联疾病，其依据是科学证据的权重（http://oe.cd/aops）。目前，AOP 主要用于化学安全，但与辐射有关。在这种情况下，核能机构（NEA）的低剂量研究高级别小组（HLG-LDR）正在努力改善研究协调，包括化学研究与放射研究之间的协调，确定各领域之间的协同作用，并避免工作和资源投资的重复。为此，2020 年 10 月 7 日和 8 日，OECD AOP 计划的专家与辐射和化学研究/监管界的专家举行了一次虚拟研讨会。该研讨会是加拿大卫生部、电力研究所（EPRI）和核能机构（NEA）的协调努力。讨论了 AOP 方法，包括充分利用其价值并促进其在辐射风险评估领域实施的关键问题。
建议成立一个化学和放射学联合专家组，以鼓励风险评估人员之间的合作，并讨论了前进的初步设想。建议进行全球调查，以确定 AOP 开发中监管感兴趣的优先健康结果。需要多学科团队来解决为风险评估生成适当数据的挑战。数据管理和机器学习工具被强调为从证据权重推进到计算因果推理的一种方式。
