The goal of this effort was to obtain a range of "real world" mixtures that would provide a robust application of the value of the decision tree.
This paper outlines the development of the DESPRIT method and demonstrates its properties through various experiments conducted on synthetic and real world mixtures.
In view of the diversity of "real world" mixtures composed of numerous different chemicals with a multitude of different modes of action, it is suggestive to regard dissimilar action of mixture components as the default scenario.
The choice of compounds was motivated by our interest to explore the predictability of combination effects caused by similarly acting anti-androgens rather than to emulate "real world" mixtures.
One such approach involves animal and human exposures to "real world" mixtures of air pollutants under controlled conditions or environments that simulate ambient conditions, such as in photochemical chambers (Lemos et al. 2011; Sexton et al. 2004) or a traffic tunnel (Kooter et al. 2006).
In this process the lowest effect concentration measured in a laboratory test is divided by an application factor (usually between 10 and 1,000, depending on pragmatic assumptions relating to single substances versus real world mixtures, acute chronic ratios, and interspecies differences).
Defined mixtures, which are defined by how they are generated, are source-oriented, and lessen the difficulties by focusing exclusively on a distinct type of real-world mixture, such as emissions from certain sources or source categories.
This is a difficult challenge for exposure assessors because relatively scant exposure-related information is available for most real-world mixtures of public health concern.
This study demonstrates that the developing fetus is sensitive to real-world mixtures of environmental chemicals, which cause significant neuroendocrine alterations.
Faced with the array, complexity, and variability of real-world mixtures, scientists have found it useful to distinguish among three generic types: similar, defined, and coincidental mixtures (Sexton et al. 1995a; Vouk et al. 1987).
Although the results have expanded our knowledge base, in most cases realistic risk assessment is hindered by a scarcity of data on the combined effects of exposure to real-world mixtures.
