ASTM E1847-96(2013)

4.1.1 The goals when performing statistical analyses, are to summarize, display, quantify, and provide objective measures for assessing the relationships and anomalies in data. Statistical analyses also involve fitting a model to the data and making inferences from the model. The type of data dictates the type of model to be used. Statistical analysis provides the means to test differences between control and treatment groups (one form of hypothesis testing), as well as the means to describe the relationship between the level of treatment and the measured responses (concentration effect curves), or to quantify the degree of uncertainty in the end-point estimates derived from the data.

4.1.2 The goals of this practice are to identify and describe commonly used statistical procedures for toxicity tests. 1.1 This practice covers guidance for the statistical analysis of laboratory data on the toxicity of chemicals or mixtures of chemicals to aquatic or terrestrial plants and animals. This practice applies only to the analysis of the data, after the test has been completed. All design concerns, such as the statement of the null hypothesis and its alternative, the choice of alpha and beta risks, the identification of experimental units, possible pseudo replication, randomization techniques, and the execution of the test are beyond the scope of this practice. This practice is not a textbook, nor does it replace consultation with a statistician. It assumes that the investigator recognizes the structure of his experimental design, has identified the experimental units that were used, and understands how the test was conducted. Given this information, the proper statistical analyses can be determined for the data.

1.2 The sections of this guide appear as follows:

1.3 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.