A review of the reference dose for chlorpyrifos

Chlorpyrifos is an inhibitor of cholinesterase (ChE) and inhibition of ChE is believed to be the most sensitive effect in all animal species evaluated and in humans from previous evaluations. Recent literature, in particular epidemiology studies reporting associations between chlorpyrifos levels and fetal birth weight decreases, suggest the need to reevaluate the basis of the reference dose (RfD) for chlorpyrifos, however. In this paper, we evaluated newly available publications regarding chlorpyrifos toxicity and discuss the choice of critical effect—whether cholinesterase inhibition or developmental effect, the choice of appropriate species and study, the appropriate point of departure, and choice of uncertainty factors—including a discussion of the FQPA safety factor. We conclude that RBC cholinesterase inhibition is the critical effect, that human studies form the best choice of species—supported by a wealth of experimental animal data, that a NOAEL of 0.1 mg/kg/day is the most appropriate point of departure, and that a 10-fold factor for within human variability is sufficient to characterize the overall uncertainty in this rather large database. The resulting RfD is 0.01 mg/kg/day.