A toxicological risk assessment procedure: a proposal for a surveillance index for hazardous chemicals.

Health-oriented government agencies responsible for the protection of the public from possible adverse effects, such as that posed by chemical residues in the food supply, must establish priorities on regulatory action as well as for manpower to conduct monitoring programs. A new procedure entitled Surveillance Index (SI) is presented as a technique to evaluate toxic materials that are potential candidates as residues in food supplies and to assign an index number that identifies a relative hazard to the public among the various residues. The SI numbers can be used as criteria by which chemical residues should be monitored whenever conditions such as time and available resources are limiting factors.