Environmental Biology for Engineers and Scientists (Vaccari/Environmental Biology for Engineers and Scientists) || Applications of Toxicology

✍ Scribed by Vaccari, David A.; Strom, Peter F.; Alleman, James E.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 101 KB
• Edition: 1
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 0471722391
• DOI: 10.1002/0471741795.ch22

✦ Synopsis

The results of toxicological studies are used by a number of government agencies to protect the health of individuals or of ecosystems. Risk assessment is used to provide a rational basis for regulatory decision making. It may even be used in cost-benefit analyses for regulations. In what is called a toxicity reduction evaluation, bioassays may be used to find and eliminate the source of toxicity in wastewaters.

22.1 RISK ASSESSMENT

Risk is defined as the probability and magnitude of an adverse effect. Quantitative risk assessment is the process of determining that probability and magnitude. Examples of risk assessment include financial risk analysis, the determination of exposure to property or other economic loss, and safety hazard analysis, the determination of the risk of lowprobability high-consequence effects. Here we are concerned with the following kinds of risk assessment: Health risk assessment is the determination of the likelihood of adverse effects in humans, generally from chronic low-level exposure to toxic agents. Ecological risk assessment (also called hazard assessment) examines the risk of harm to species other than humans. Risk assessment is usually considered to include the following four steps: