Knowledge of chemical mixtures is improving rapidly as research into their properties, behaviour and effects is stepped up amid concern that they may be causing as much, or even more, harm in certain circumstance than individual toxic substances. As increasing amounts of data are collected on mixtures and combined exposures, however, conventional methods of assessing their risks are being reviewed, or even abandoned. The task of evaluating them is seen as requiring sophisticated assessment techniques which, in most cases, do not exist yet and will have to be developed over the next few years. In the meantime, deficiencies and inconsistencies in approaches to mixtures among risk assessors and risk managers seem inevitable.
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