10.2190/KDRP-D40E-FLP9-X59L KDRPD40EFLP9X59L 1 Cancer, Carcinogens and Dispersal: A Disciplinary Dysfunction 211 218 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 KDRPD40EFLP9X59L.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=KDRPD40EFLP9X59L 3 David A. Bella Taraneh Tabesh Oregon State University University of California, Berkeley This article compares the paradigms (shared goals, objectives, methods, and assumptions) of toxicology and environmental engineering. With respect to carcinogens, the different paradigms appear to be inconsistent with each other. Environmental engineers implicitly assume nonlinear (threshold) dose-response relationships while toxicologists tend to employ a linear dose-response relationship for carcinogens in the low-dose range. This difference becomes significant when one considers the dispersal of carcinogens to reduce maximum concentrations. Environmental engineers tend to assume that dispersal is desirable though the assumption is often implicit. Toxicologists, in general, do not examine dispersal but much of their work suggests that dispersal is not desirable. The experimental and theoretical research of both disciplines as traditionally practiced is not likely to resolve this inconsistency. An experimental approach is outlined that could address these inconsistencies. T. S. Kuhn, <i>The Structure of Scientific Revolution</i>, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1962. D. A. Bella and K. J. Williamson, Conflicts of Interdisciplinary Research, <i>Journal of Environmental Systems, 6</i>, pp. 105-124, 1976-77. U. S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, Chemical Carcinogens: Notice of Review of the Science and Its Associated Principles, <i>Federal Register, 49</i>:100, pp. 21594-21661, May 22, 1984. B. Altshuler, Modeling of Dose Response Relationships, <i>Environmental Health Perspectives, 42</i>, pp. 23-27, 1981. T. Tabesh, Analysis of Dichotomous Response Models for Low-Dose Carcinogenic Risk Estimation, Masters thesis, Oregon State University, Department of Civil Engineering, Corvallis, OR, 1984. D. Krewski and C. Brown, Carcinogenic Risk Assessment: A Guide to the Literature, <i>Biometrics, 37</i>:2, pp. 353-366, June 1981. D. G. Hoel, H. L. Kaplan, and M. W. Anderson, Implication of Non-linear Kinetics on Risk Estimation in Carcinogenesis, <i>Science, 219</i>, pp. 1032-1037, 1983. K. S. Crump, D. G. Hoel, C. H. Langley, and R. Petro, Fundamental Carcinogenic Processes and Their Implications for Low Dose Risk Assessment, <i>Cancer Research, 36</i>, pp. 2973-2979, September 1976. D. P. Rall, Thresholds? <i>Environmental Health Perspectives, 22</i>, pp. 163-165, 1978. S. H. Moolgavkar, Model for Human Carcinogenesis: Action of Environmental Agents, <i>Environmental Health Perspectives, 50</i>, pp. 285-291, 1983.