This is the third of 10 lectures on toxicologic epidemiology. It has been prepared to expand on the brief discussion of the linkage between toxicology and health risk assessment (RA) that was presented in Lecture 1. Frankly, the close relationship between RA and toxicology cannot be fully disclosed in one or two lectures of this type. The documentation or literature on such a relationship is just too much to appreciate. Accordingly, like all others in this series, this lecture is necessarily compact, with the materials organized primarily for easy access by the novice.

There are four key elements anchoring the close relationship between RA and toxicology. These elements are: Perceptions of risk and health; regulatory statutes; toxicity studies; and related research developments. The materials in this lecture thus can be viewed as divided into four main parts, with each part covering the impact or influence of one of these four key elements.

The titles of the 10 lectures are: (1) Toxicology and Epidemiology; (2) Public Health and Risk Assessment; (3) Toxicology and Risk Assessment; (4) Epidemiology and Risk Assessment; (5) Toxicologic Side of Epidemiology; (6) Epidemiologic Side of Toxicology; (7) Human Exposure Assessment I; (8) Human Exposure Assessment II; (9) Characterization of Health Risk; and (10) Toxicologic Epidemiology.