Risk Assessment Flashcards
Risk assessment is a bridge between ____ and _____
science and policy
Provide evidence base for decisions on policies to protect the public from identified health hazards
risk assessment
The field of environmental risk assessment focuses on
actual or potential release of contaminants into the environment
four steps of risk assessment
release
transport
exposure
effects
two parts of release analysis
identification of contaminants
quantification of emission rate
two parts of transport analysis
identification of pathways
determination of contaminant concentrations
three pathways for transport
atmospheric
aquatic
food chain
two parts of exposure analysis
identification of exposure scenarios
determination of dose
three parts of effects analysis
human health effects
ecological effects
aesthetics
assess the health impact from multiple agents in a similar pathway or a similar biologicl manner
cumulative risk
assess the effect of one agent from multiple exposure pathways
aggregated risk
Love canal incident caused the passage of
CERCLA
conducted to determine risk from hazardous waste site if no action were taken to clean up the site
baseline risk assessment
used to generate an estimate of the human health risk posed by specific chemicals from a specific hazardous waste site
RAGS
four steps in RAGS process
- hazard identification
- exposure assessment
- toxicity assessment
- risk characterization
non-cancer outcomes such as reproductive or neurological dysfunction are
deterministic effects
cancer risks are assessed as
stochastic effects
an effect whose severity depends on the dose
deterministic effect
two types of deterministic effects
systematic toxicity
teratogenesis
three types of systematic toxicity
organ dysfunction
irrational and sensitization
behavioral impairment
teratogenesis =
fetal developent
a ratio comparison of average daily dose to a reference dose, a value expected to pose no appreciable effects
hazard quotient
hazard quotient less than one
safe
hazard quotient more than one
dangerous
an effect whose probability depends on dose
stochastic effects
the probability of a cancer either occurring or causing a fatality during a lifetime
rho- the cancer slope factor
two sources of limitation for default risk assumptions
true variability among humans
uncertainty associated with behavior of contaminants and biological modes within the body
the result of scientific research, experimental studies, epidemiological surveys, and probabilistic risk analyses
real risk
non-expert perceptions of that risk, modified/distorted by subjective considerations
perceived risk
risk based decision making involves three things
risk assessment
social, political, economic, technical…
value judgements
