Analysis of Toxicity Studies

This book deals with the design and analysis of a wide array of experiments that are used to assess the toxicity of chemicals. The emphasis is on ecotoxicity studies, but the methods are applicable more broadly to toxicity studies of all types. Ample datasets are included to illustrate all of the topics. Most of these datasets are from actual laboratory or field studies. In addition, SAS programs are provided to carry out all the analyses discussed. In some cases, programs in R or excel are also provided and evaluations of other software packages for specialized analyses are provided.

Several topics are included that are not available in any other text book. These include recently developed methods for the analysis of severity scores and other ordered responses, as well as extensive power studies of competing tests and computer simulation studies of regression models to provide understanding of the sensitivity (or lack thereof) of various methods and the quality of parameter estimates from regression models. Also of possible interest is a discussion of the regulatory process indicating how test guidelines are developed and a discussion of statistical methodology in current or pending OECD and USEPA ecotoxicity guidelines.

In addition to analysis methods appropriate for a single toxicity study, attention is given to how data from multiple studies of the same chemical are combined to aid risk assessment. In particular, risk assessment with species sensitivity distributions are given a careful discussion with reference to several software packages available for such analyses.