1. General toxicology

The effect of a toxic substance on human health depends on the dose administered: the higher the dose (expressed in mg/kg body weight), the greater the pharmacological effect, and below a certain dose, there is no measurable biological effect. A tolerable daily intake (TDI) can be defined on the basis of no-effect doses from animal tests, using a safety factor ranging from 100 to 1,000. This Tolerable Daily Intake must take account of the different environments (food, water, air).

Depending on the dose administered [1] , the same toxicant can cause different effects, and is therefore referred to as acute toxicity (single absorption of a generally high dose of a chemical substance) with a lethal or sublethal effect, or chronic toxicity (exposure to low but repeated doses over a more or less long period...