While most of the PowerPoint lectures I've put on this site are one click away, this one requires a bit more introduction. It is actually a series of lectures, and I encourage you to add/subtract materials depending upon your emphasis and the skill level of your students. It will take about three full weeks of class time to complete this unit. I include a number of supplemental readings, an integrated toxicology/epidemiology problem set, and some supplemental handouts and spreadsheets. PLEASE READ ALL MATERIALS CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU USE THEM. E-mail me with suggestions, additions, comments and errata.

Overview: in this unit, I use two benzene data sets to explore a range of issues associated with extrapolating to low-dose effects in humans. At the end of this students should have a healthy skepticism of risk analysis methods, but should also be cured of the idea that regulatory assumptions are somehow "antiscientific." They should understand that using animal data or even human data might be irrelevant, might overestimate risks, and might underestimate risks.

Methods covered include extrapolation, likelihood maximization, bootstrapping.

Copyright information: All materials on the RATL website are available free for use by individuals learning on their own, and for use in courses that are part of the standard catalog at accredited degree-granting institutions. I retain the rights for all materials that I have created. For all other uses, including but not limited to professional workshops and for-profit seminars, including those sponsored by accredited institutions but done outside the normal curriculum, please contact me or the contact individual listed on the materials you wish to use. In all cases, please include the attribution in your presentation.

Feedback requirement: The informal and optional "charge" for using this website is your feedback. As you use individual items, especially those that I have created, please send constructive criticism, including (but not limited to) editorial suggestions, more efficient solutions, alternate viewpoints and so on. These will be most useful to me as I argue to my department Chair, Dean, Provost, etc, that the effort I dedicate to risk education is valued by my peers. Contact information is available at the bottom of the page. While some of these refer to material contained in Should We Risk It?, you need not have the book to use the lectures.