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Abbreviations / Glossary

ADI
Acceptable daily intake. Estimated daily amount that can be taken into the body without any detrimental health effects occurring, based on available scientific information. May also be referred to as a reference dose (RfD). Applies to food additives and veterinary drug residues
Acceptable risk level
Regulatory-defined acceptable level of increased risk associated with exposure to contaminants
Background exposure
Exposure to contaminants from background sources including food, water and air
BaP
Benzo(a)pyrene
BCF
Bio-concentration factor
BMDx
Benchmark dose – the lowest dose, as estimated from an appropriate model, at which a given (x) excess tumour incidence occurs; used for oral exposure data
BMDLx
Benchmark-dose lower bound – the lower confidence limit of the estimated benchmark dose (BMD), provides an upper-bound estimate of the slope factor; used for oral exposure data
Carcinogenic potency
Estimates of the potency of non-threshold contaminants, may be expressed as a slope factor (risk/mg/kg bw day) or risk specific dose (mg/kg bw day) or similar
CCA
Chromated copper arsenate
CLMG
Contaminated land management guideline
EFSA
European Food Safety Authority
FAO
Food and Agriculture Organization
Genotoxic
Direct or indirect damage to the DNA molecule – may lead to mutations or cancer
HAIL
Hazardous Activities and Industries List. A list of industries and activities considered likely to manufactured, stored or used hazardous substances. List may be used as a trigger for investigating a site, and identifying possible contaminants. The full list is attached in Appendix 4.
Index dose
Estimated daily amount that can be taken into the body without exceeding an acceptable risk level for a non- threshold contaminant based on available scientific information. Also referred to as the risk-specific dose
JECFA
Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives
JMPR
Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues
LOAEL
Lowest observable adverse effects level
MfE
Ministry for the Environment (NZ)
NES
National environmental standard – a regulation under the Resource Management Act 1991
NHMRC
National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia)
NOAEL
No observable adverse effect level
Non-threshold contaminant
Contaminant for which toxic effects are considered to occur at any level of exposure
PAH
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
PCP
Pentachlorophenol
PEFs
Potency equivalence factors
PHARMAC
Pharmaceutical Management Agency of New Zealand
PTWI
Provisional tolerable weekly intake
Permitted
The activity does not require resource consent under the RMA provided the standards, terms or conditions specified are complied with
Phytotoxic
Concentration at which contaminants are toxic to plants
PTWI
Provisional tolerable weekly intake
QALY
Quality adjusted life years
RfC
Reference concentration – an estimate (with uncertainty spanning perhaps an order of magnitude) of a continuous inhalation exposure to the human population (including sensitive subgroups) that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime. It can be derived from a NOAEL, LOAEL, or benchmark concentration, with uncertainty factors generally applied to reflect limitations of the data used. Generally used in the US EPA’s non-cancer health assessments
RfD
Reference dose – an estimate (with uncertainty spanning perhaps an order of magnitude) of a daily oral exposure to the human population (including sensitive subgroups) that is likely to be without an appreciable risk of deleterious effects during a lifetime. It can be derived from a NOAEL, LOAEL, or benchmark concentration, with uncertainty factors generally applied to reflect limitations of the data used. Generally used in US EPA’s non-cancer health assessments – analogous to the tolerable daily intake
RHS
Reference health standard – any value set by a regulatory or advisory body that provides an estimated daily (sometimes weekly or monthly) amount of a substance that can be taken into the body without either any or an unacceptable additional risk of detrimental health effects occurring (based on available scientific information), eg, tolerable daily intake, reference dose, drinking water standard
Restricted discretionary
A resource consent is required under the RMA. The consent authority may decline the consent, or grant it subject to conditions, but only on matters to which it has restricted its discretion.
RIA
Regulatory impact assessment
Risk-specific dose
Estimated daily amount that can be taken into the body without exceeding an acceptable risk level for a non- threshold contaminant based on available scientific information – also referred to as an index dose
RMA
Resource Management Act 1991
SGVs(health)
Soil guideline values for human health as defined in section 8 and table 3 of this document.
SSGV
Site-specific soil guideline value
Slope factor
Plausible upper-bound estimate of the probability of an individual developing cancer as a result of a lifetime of exposure to a particular level of a potential carcinogen
TDI
Tolerable daily intake. Estimated daily amount that can be taken into the body without any detrimental health effects occurring based on available scientific information. May also be referred to as a reference dose
TEFs
Toxicity equivalence factors
TEQ
Total toxic equivalent value
Threshold contaminant
Contaminant for which toxic effects are considered to occur if exposure exceeds a threshold concentration
WHO
World Health Organization

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