Environmental Risk Assessment and Communication (7) Flashcards
Bartell definition of quantitative risk assessment
“…an attempt to estimate an unmeasured past or present or to predict an unknown future…”
Steps of Environmental Risk Assessment
(1) Hazard identification (2) Exposure Assessment (3) Dose-Response Assessment (4) Risk Characterization
Hazard identification
Examines whether a stressor has the potential to harm humans and/or ecological systems & under what circumstances
Dose-response assessment
Examines numerical relationship between exposure and effects
Exposure assessment
Examines what is known about frequency, timing, and levels of contact with a stressor
Risk characterization
Examines extra risk within the exposed population to this stressor
Goals of Environmental Risk Assessment
(1) Assign a number to environmental risk (2) determine factors associated with higher risk (3) serve as decision making tool
Hazard
Something that has the POSSIBILITY to cause harm
Risk
PROBABILITY that something will cause harm
Average Daily Dose (ADD)
(µg contaminant)/ (kg body weight-day)
a measure of intake
Lifetime Average Daily Dose (LADD)
scale Average Daily Dose (ADD) by life expectancy
a measure of intake
Hazard quotient (Non-cancer)
(LADD in mg/kg-d)/(Reference dose in mg/kg-d)
> 1: risk to population
<1: no risk to population
Cancer risk
potency * LADD
Steps of risk management
- Risk evaluation
- Risk perception & communication
- Control of exposure
- Risk monitoring
Barriers to effective risk communication
- Uncertainty
- Distrust
- Filtering of info
- Psychosocial factors
