Risk Assessment & Management [OK] Flashcards
Differentiate
risk vs hazard
- Risk: Possibility of damage/harm to ppl or assets
- Hazard: Anything that can cause damage/harm/stress to people or assets
What makes a hazard dangerous?
Severity of hazard is affected by management/regulation of hazard
Differentiate
Risk Assessment vs Management
- Assessment: scientific evaluation of potential impacts posed by a stressor/hazard
- Management: strategies that help alleviate/lower risk
Input needed for RA
7
- Demographics
- Cause of hazard
- Effect of hazard
- Exposure Pathways
- Longevity
- Physiology
- Nature (man-made vs natural)
PLEDENC
Why are risk assessments needed?
Policy dictates management
* assessments are needed for us to work on management
* to manage a large pop, you need distinct policy (which should be based on assessments)
Main objective of risk assessment
to reduce risk through realistic and cost-effective means that are acceptable to the public
List
Objectives of Risk Assessment 4
- Balance risk and benefits (ex. Drugs, pesticides)
- Set target levels of risk
- Set priorities for program activities
- Estimate residual risks & extent of risks after risk reduction steps have been taken
T/F
We cannot get rid of all risk
T
we can only but reduce it enough to make it safe
List
How do we protect susceptible populations?
2
- Additional protective (or safety factors)
- Guidelines & standards are usually more conservative
Why are health workers vulnerable?
- exposed to a higher viral load
- Being constantly exposed to a hazard makes you vulnerable
Why are people discomfortable with RA?
- Probabilities: low probabilities with high consequences
- if a hazard is less likely to happen, but has severe impact when it does (ex. nuclear fallout)
- Different conclusions, different recommendations (ex. COVID treatments)
Why are experts afraid of making evaluations for low probability, high consequences?
- Very technical people are uncomfortable with making decisions on these kinds of probabilities
- Most risk assessments have low no. of studies/ lack of data
What are the benefits & dangers of disclosing different opinions?
[+] More perspective
[-] Gridlock: don’t make a decision
What principle does this follow”
“[The US EPA must] make an affirmative finding on the safety of a new chemical or significant new use of an existing chemical before it is allowed in the marketplace.”
Precautionary Principle
* If you are unsure abt something, make sure you don’t use it
List
Literatures for Risk Assessment
2
- The Red Book (1983)
- Stockholm Convention
- Literature that standardized how risk assessments are conducted
- By the National Academy of Sciences
- Came after controversial assessments of risk for diff substances
The Red Book (1983)
Defined the ‘Dirty Dozen’ – 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
Addressed environmental contaminants & human health
Stockholm Convention (1972)
Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment
Identify
Principle:
“Humans have the fundamental right to freedom, equality, and adequate conditions of life, in an environment of a quality that permits a life of dignity and well-being, and bear a solemn responisbility to protect and improve the environment for present and future generations.”
Intergenerational equity
* present generation should make sure envi is the same/beter for future generations
Principle where present generation should make sure envi is the same/beter for future generations
Intergenerational equity
- legal remedy designed for the protection of one’s constitutional right to a healthy environment
- can invoke in the Supreme Court: they can make a cease & desist order against parties destroying the environment while a case is being a filed against them
- Created when a lot of dams were cropping up + mining activities
Writ of Kalikasan
List
Tools for RA
3
- Constantly updated and evaluated data
- Assessment methodologies
- Computational tools for systematic analysis
List
Examples of assessment methodologies
4
- Epidemiology – patterns in populations
- Toxicology – physiological effects from substances
- Exposure science – understand how people are exposed and how it leads to ???
- Genomics/ epigenetics – specific mutations brought about by substances
Examples of Computational Tools for systematic analysis
3
Machine learning – AI
Epigenetics
Computational modelling
Is acceptable risk defined by risk assessment?
No
* It is Decided by policy informed by risk assessments
* Where Risk Management comes in
What factors contribute to population risk?
- From socioeconomic to individual exposures
- Determine background risk of a population
Note: Know population well before imposing management strategies on them
