Definitions Flashcards
Risk
The PROBABILITY that an adverse effect will result under specified conditions
Risk assessment of toxicants
a characterization of hazard from exposure to environmental chemicals.
Involves understanding the toxicity of the chemical(s), exposure, and characteristics of exposed population
Epidemiology
Human studies
Cohort
prospective in design
Case-Control
retrospective in nature
Studying humans
no need for cross-species extrapolation
Risk Characterization
Combining information from first three steps in risk assessment
Risk Management
Making decisions to reduce/manage risk. Different process than risk assessment
Health Risk Assessment
The characterization of the potential adverse health effects of human exposures to environmental hazards
Ecological Risk Assessment
the process for evaluating how likely it is that the environment may be impacted as a result of exposure to one or more environmental stressors such as chemicals, land change, disease, invasive species and climate change
“Risk managers”
federal or state officials whose job it is to protect the environment, e.g., CA Air Resources Board or USEPA Risk Managers but can also be:
business leaders who work at companies that can impact the environment, or
private citizens who are making decisions regarding risk.
Chemical-specific risk assessments
refers to applying the 4 steps to a single chemical
Site-specific risk assessment
applies the 4 steps to specific locations or scenarios
Hazard Identification
The process of determining what adverse effects are caused by exposure to an agent
Dose-Response Assessment
The process of quantifying the relationship between the exposure or dose of a chemical and the adverse effect
Exposure Assessment
The process of quantifying the amount of exposure to an environmental chemical humans receive from a single or multiple media
Risk Characterization
The process of combining the first three steps of risk assessment into a coherent picture describing the risks of exposure to the chemical(s) in question
Adverse effect
a biochemical change, functional impairment, or pathologic lesion that affects the performance of the whole organism, or reduces an organism’s ability to respond to an additional environmental challenge
Pharmacokinetic studies
how your body handles the chemical:Absorption,
Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion
Mode of Action
describes how a chemical causes toxicity in a general way
Mechanism of action
this term usually specifies how a chemical causes toxicity from a mechanistic standpoint
Case Reports
Usually a report of one or a few people experiencing adverse effects after an exposure
“in vitro”
not in a whole animal, e.g. testing cells or tissues
Toxicology assays
identifying early biological changes from chemical exposure
