Safety Factor in Toxicology

The safety factor in toxicology is a value that shows how much the maximum permissible concentration (MAC) of a harmful substance for humans is less than the threshold for the chronic effect of this substance on the body, established in experiments on animals.

The safety factor reflects the degree of risk to human health when exposed to harmful substances and allows you to determine how safe it is to use certain substances in everyday life.

To determine the safety factor, it is necessary to know the maximum permissible concentration of a harmful substance and the threshold for chronic exposure to the body. Then, by comparing these two values, the safety factor can be determined.
For example, if the maximum permissible concentration of a substance is 10 mg/m3, and the threshold for chronic exposure is 5 mg/m3, then the safety factor will be equal to 2. This means that a person can be in the area of ​​influence of this substance for 2 hours without risk to health. health.

Thus, the safety factor is an important safety indicator when working with various substances and allows you to assess the risk to human health when used in industry, agriculture and other sectors.

A safety factor is a value that is used in the field of toxicology to assess the permissible concentrations of harmful substances in the environment and prevent their negative effects on the human body. The safety factor determines how far the permissible concentration of a substance can be below the threshold for chronic action identified through animal testing to ensure human safety.

The toxicological safety factor is a value that reflects the relationship between the permissible concentration of a harmful or dangerous substance for humans and the threshold of its chronic effect on an animal, known and established empirically. It is usually expressed as an attitude. However, only one safety factor is not always sufficient to ensure the safety of people. There are many other factors to consider