Department of Environment and Geography, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
Syngenta Crop Protection LLC, Greensboro, NC, USA.
Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 2021 Jul;81(1):123-132. doi: 10.1007/s00244-021-00847-x. Epub 2021 Apr 23.
This paper presents a semiquantitative method to help ecotoxicologists evaluate the consistency of data within the available peer-reviewed literature. In this case study, we queried whether there is consistent evidence of direct toxicity in Anurans exposed to atrazine at concentrations ≤ 100 μg/L under laboratory conditions. Atrazine was selected because of the relatively large repository of Anuran toxicity data. To accomplish this, we interrogated available data found in recent quantitative weight-of-evidence risk assessments for atrazine with a series of yes or no questions developed a priori. The questions examined consistency of reported effects within and between studies, within and between species, and across a wide range of endpoints categories (e.g., survivorship, growth and development, reproduction). The analysis found no compelling evidence of a consistent direct effect in Anurans around growth and development, reproduction, or survivorship at concentrations of up to at least 100 μg/L atrazine in laboratory studies. Further work is needed to refine the approach, including accounting for the magnitude of the reported effects. However, we recommend that ecotoxicologists employ some method of formal consistency of effects assessment method routinely before performing toxicity tests, in the contextualizing of new data, and in reviews of contaminants.
本文提出了一种半定量方法，帮助生态毒理学家评估现有同行评议文献中数据的一致性。在本案例研究中，我们查询了在实验室条件下，暴露于浓度≤100μg/L 的莠去津的蛙类是否存在直接毒性的一致证据。莠去津之所以被选中，是因为有关蛙类毒性的数据相对较多。为了实现这一目标，我们使用预先制定的一系列是或否问题，对莠去津最近的定量证据权重风险评估中可获得的数据进行了查询。这些问题检查了报告的效应在研究内和研究间、物种内和物种间以及广泛的终点类别（例如，存活率、生长和发育、繁殖）内的一致性。分析发现，在实验室研究中，在浓度高达至少 100μg/L 的莠去津条件下，对于生长和发育、繁殖或存活率，没有一致的直接效应的有力证据。需要进一步的工作来完善该方法，包括考虑报告效应的大小。然而，我们建议生态毒理学家在进行毒性测试之前、在新数据的背景化以及在污染物的审查中，通常采用某种正式的效应一致性评估方法。
