Fact Sheet I: A measure of acceptable daily intake

A tool to assess risks of long term exposure to contaminants   

Researchers in the US have found that women who apply lipsticks two to three times a day could be ingesting toxic metals like cadmium, chromium, alumunium and manganese to the extent of over 20 per cent of their average daily intake (ADI)

Acceptable daily intake (ADI) is commonly defined as the amount of a chemical to which a person can be exposed on a daily basis over an extended period of time (usually a lifetime) without suffering any deleterious effect. 

The ADI concept has often been used as a tool in reaching risk management decisions (for example, establishing allowable levels of contaminants in foodstuffs and water). 

It can be understood as a measure to indicate the toxicity from long-term exposure as opposed to acute toxicity.

• ADI is calculated to protect against the most sensitive adverse effect and, therefore, also protects against other adverse effects occurring at higher exposures

• It is based on long-term studies on animals and observations on humans

• Typically, it is arrived at after assessing the experimentally determined dose at which no effect is observed. Safety factors for humans and children are factored in thereafter

• ADIs are expressed usually in milligrams (of the substance) per kilogram of body weight per day. In the US, the concept of reference dose (RfD) which is similar to ADI is used to assess the long-term risk