LAUSR

The benchmark dose (BMD) methodology has become the recommended approach to derive reference values for risk assessment for several authorities. However, in practice, the BMD approach is not standard use in the risk assessment for pesticides where the no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL), lowest observed adverse effect level (LOAEL), and the ED50 or EDx prevail. The regression-based BMD and BMDL (Benchmark dose lower confidence limit) have several advantages, such as utilizing more information of the generated data and being less dependent on the tested dose levels. However, the BMD approach requires some degree of expert knowledge, i.e., for defining an appropriate risk level for estimating the BMD and using more sophisticated statistical methods for calculating the BMD and the BMDL. The BMD approach is one way to move away from p-value-based binary decision-making towards putting the weight on effect sizes. We review the advantages and disadvantages of focusing the risk assessment of pesticides on the BMD approach. Further, we discuss potential applications in efficacy trials for pest management purposes. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.