Benchmark Dose Estimation

Abstract

The benchmark dose (BMD) methodology is a statistical procedure, first proposed by Crump in 1984, to determine allowable daily intakes of chemicals. The BMD was proposed as an alternative to the no‐observed‐adverse‐effect‐level (NOAEL) approach. The procedure is now widely used in risk assessment to establish health standards and guidelines for exposure of toxins to humans or to the environment. In this article, we review the BMD procedure, give details on how to compute the BMD and BMDL for both quantal and continuous endpoints and survey some of the recent developments in benchmark dose estimation.