Approaches to assessing genetic risks from exposure to chemicals.

An effort to assess and quantify genetic risks from human exposure to mutagenic chemicals is urgently needed; otherwise genetic toxicology may well lose its credibility. Genetic biomonitoring provides us with an indication of mutagenic effectiveness in human somatic cells. The populations and chemicals selected for such studies form a useful database for genetic risk-assessment studies.

The effect of multi-locus deletions in heterozygotes; a model study using Drosophila.

In a model study using Drosophila, we examined the heterozygous effects of a number of well-defined X-chromosomal deletions (i.e., those differing in location, but of about the same length, and those differing in length but located in the same general region), using relative viability and/or fertility as indicators.

International symposium on strategies for the control of mutagenic and carcinogenic risk: current status and perspectives, Friday, May 5, 1989, Bologna.

The 18 posters, grouped under mutagenicity testing, metabolic activation, mechanisms of mutation and chromosome damage, human monitoring and safety are critically discussed. It is pointed out that rather than applying a single test, a battery of well-validated in vitro and in vivo tests is required. As a testing strategy, the one developed by Ashby is briefly mentioned.