What is LD50/LC50?
LD50 and LC50 are standard measures for expressing and comparing the toxicity of chemicals, LD50 is the abbreviation for lethal dose 50 and LC50 is the abbreviation for lethal concentration 50, usually in air or water. The value that is associated with either is the lowest amount of the chemical, given in one dose, which is required to kill 50% of the test subjects. Toxicologists can use many kinds of animals but testing is usually done with rats and mice.
The value is expressed as the weight of chemical administered per kilogram of body weight with the animal used and the route of exposure, oral, dermal i.e. LD50 (rat, oral) 5mg/kg. Basically the lower the value the more toxic the chemical is.
Several counties, including the UK, have taken steps to ban the oral LD50 test, and within the EU regulation 1272/2008 we are required to consider other ways to carry out the tests so that we avoid unnecessary animal testing.
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