Potency Estimation

A common goal in environmental risk assessment is description of the hazardous agent's toxic or otherwise-harmful effects, often for comparison with others agents of related structure or exposure. Summary measures are most useful in this regard, as these describe the potency of an agent or some product of an agent on the organism or system under study. A number of quantitative summaries can be used to measure or define potency, each based on a slightly different feature of the observed dose–response. We consider a few of these in this article.