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Eesa10 Risk Assessment

The document discusses risk assessment, including defining risk, the stages of risk assessment such as problem definition, contaminant identification, receptor analysis, pathway analysis, and exposure assessment. It also covers toxicity and risk assessment for carcinogens and non-carcinogens. The document outlines uncertainties in risk assessment and describes risk analysis, management, and communication.

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8 views3 pages

Eesa10 Risk Assessment

The document discusses risk assessment, including defining risk, the stages of risk assessment such as problem definition, contaminant identification, receptor analysis, pathway analysis, and exposure assessment. It also covers toxicity and risk assessment for carcinogens and non-carcinogens. The document outlines uncertainties in risk assessment and describes risk analysis, management, and communication.

Uploaded by

ananya.mehra200418
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EESA10

RISK ASSESSMENT

What is risk?
-possibility or probability of suffering harm from a hazard
-contaminants receptors and exposure pathways need to be related for risk

Intro
Why risk assessment?
-take action without full scientific understanding of hazard
-sets default procedures for bridging gaps in scientific understanding
-evaluate exposure and toxicity
-integrate info to characterize a health risk
-assessment, characterization, management and then verification

Benefits
-agent suspected of causing disease
-testing new chemicals
-helps rank contribution to overall risk
-identify risks that can be reduced
-clarify what is known or unknown about situation
-provide quantitative info for decision making

Stages of risk assessment


1.problem definition
-purpose
-management goals, decide what to evaluate
-policy context, what are the rules
-audience
-hazard definition
-receptors, sample of people
-level of funding

2.Identify contaminant
-is it simple compound or complex mixture w few compounds
-soil or air pollution or…

3.Receptor analysis
-organism or species exposed to stressor
Define scenario
-human, who, age, gender etc.
-length of exposure
-incremental or total exposure
-routes of exposure like inhalation
-rate of exposure from each route
-activity pattern that results in exposure
-average and worst case
-sensitive subpopulation

4.Pathway analysis
-determine changes of chemicals in environment that results in exposure
-evaluate route of exposure
-quantify amount of exposure
-you can do measurements or take a sample, how representative is it, modeling

5.Exposure assessment
-multiple routes of exposure
-quantify exposure from air, water, soil, diet etc.
-exposure= concentration x intake rate
-estimated daily intake is estimated dose for each exposure medium
-bioavailability is fraction of chemical available for uptake

6. Toxicity and risk assessment


-carcinogens and noncarcinogens are two groups
-steps are different for cancer (no threshold) and non-cancer (threshold) effects

Assessment of non-carcinogens
-exposure assessment is measured in mg/kg per day
-hazard identification is establishing a range of non-cancer effects and selects one as basis
-determine dose response relationship
-reference dose is expected to have no adverse effects in sensitive people with lifelong
exposure
-if you have high uncertainty factor then get you get a lower dose
-is hazard quotient is below 1 then there’s potential for harm at actual or estimated dose

Assessment of carcinogenic hazards


-no safe dose
-1 molecule could induce 1 tumor
-potential to cause cancer in humans
-hazard quotient more than 1 indicates potential for cancer

7.Uncertainities
Pathway analysis
-insufficient data
-measurement errors
-capturing natural variability
-future predictions
Exposure analysis
-hard to estimate for children
-bioavailability

8.Critique
-best developed for human carcinogens
-based on assumptions and uncertainties
Risk analysis
-comparative risk analysis is ranking risks
-risk management is options and decisions about reducing risks
-risk communication is informing decision makers and the public

Risk management
Individual chemicals
-decisions about goals for standards and feasible standards
Contaminated sites
-complex like many chemicals and media
-consider toxicity, future use of sites, effectiveness of cleanup options and costs

Other examples of risk management


-limits on emissions and requirements to treat wastes
-changes to industrial processes
-incentives for compliance and penalties for non-compliance
-incentive is publicly available information
-work of local health departments

The precautionary principle


-when an activity raises harm to health then measures should be taken even if the cause-
and-effect relationship isn’t fully established
-applied where scientific evidence is not enough, inconclusive, or uncertain and there are
risks

Lost opportunities for precaution


-long term use of asbestos
-synthetic organic chemicals
-depletion of global fisheries
-food industry practices amplified the mad cow disease and caused human illness

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