PREDITOX

OBJECTIVES

European guidelines for risk assessment of chemicals continuously evolve to include more ecological realism while limiting the use of laboratory animal testing. In addition, the OECD undertook a revision of guidance documents for laboratory bioassays in order to strengthen the relevance of data analysis methods.

These new official texts all recommend the use of appropriate mathematical and statistical modelling tools, for cognitive and predictive purposes. They promote the optimization of data analysis (e.g., interpolation between tested concentrations in bioassays) and the use of modelling as a basis for predicting effects under different environmental conditions (e.g., extrapolation between different scenarios and different exposure times, extrapolation from the individual to the population level, extrapolation from one species to another, or from one chemical to another).

Within this context, the PREDITOX school offers a one-week training program to guide ecotoxicologists in improving their skills in modelling and statistical inference for a better analysis of their toxicity test data.

Institutional and financial supports