Commentary: Bias in the US Environmental Protection Agency's Baseline Health Risk Assessment Supporting the Decision to Require Dredging of PCB-Bearing Sediments from the Hudson River

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Michaels ◽  
Uriel M. Oko
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Hudson River ◽  
The Us ◽  
Baseline Health

Science-policy in environmental and health risk assessment: if we cannot do without, can we do better?

2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
P F Ricci ◽  
L A Cox ◽  
T R MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Epa

How can empirical evidence of adverse effects from exposure to noxious agents, which is often incomplete and uncertain, be used most appropriately to protect human health? We examine several important questions on the best uses of empirical evidence in regulatory risk management decision–making raised by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s science–policy concerning uncertainty and variability in human health risk assessment. In our view, the US EPA (and other agencies that have adopted similar views of risk management) can often improve decision–making by decreasing reliance on default values and assumptions, particularly when causation is uncertain. This can be achieved by more fully exploiting decision–theoretic methods and criteria that explicitly account for uncertain, possibly conflicting scientific beliefs and that can be fully studied by advocates and adversaries of a policy choice, in administrative decision–making involving risk assessment. The substitution of decision–theoretic frameworks for default assumption–driven policies also allows stakeholder attitudes toward risk to be incorporated into policy debates, so that the public and risk managers can more explicitly identify the roles of risk–aversion or other attitudes toward risk and uncertainty in policy recommendations. Decision theory provides a sound scientific way explicitly to account for new knowledge and its effects on eventual policy choices. Although these improvements can complicate regulatory analyses, simplifying default assumptions can create substantial costs to society and can prematurely cut off consideration of new scientific insights (e.g., possible beneficial health effects from exposure to sufficiently low ‘hormetic’ doses of some agents). In many cases, the administrative burden of applying decision–analytic methods is likely to be more than offset by improved effectiveness of regulations in achieving desired goals. Because many foreign jurisdictions adopt US EPA reasoning and methods of risk analysis, it may be especially valuable to incorporate decision–theoretic principles that transcend local differences among jurisdictions.

scholarly journals Realization of Preventive Function of Environmental Law in the Governance of Risky Society: Based on the Article 39 of the “Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China”

2021 ◽  
Vol 272 ◽  
pp. 01025
Author(s):  
Kangning Han ◽  
Shoucheng Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Environmental Health ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Environment And Health ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
Environmental Health Risk

The protection of public health is one of the legislative purposes of China’s environmental legal system. The “Environmental Protection Law” puts forward the legal goal of “establishing and improving the environment and health monitoring, investigation and risk assessment system”, and incorporates the environmental health risk assessment system into the environment Protect the scope of basic systems, but China’s existing environmental monitoring, environmental impact assessment, and environmental standards cannot achieve the functions of environmental and health risk prevention and regulation. It is necessary to build an environmental health risk assessment system with Chinese characteristics from both physical and procedural aspects.

scholarly journals The Condition of Air Pollution in Kraków, Poland, in 2005–2020, with Health Risk Assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (17) ◽  
pp. 6063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Traczyk ◽  
Agnieszka Gruszecka-Kosowska
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Human Health Risk ◽  
Carcinogenic Risk ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Risk Indices ◽  
Study Results

Aims: Air quality changes with human health risk assessment were investigated. Methods: The measurement results obtained by the Regional Environmental Protection Inspectorate (REPI) in Kraków and our deposited particulate-matter (PM) analysis, as well as United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) methodology of risk assessment were used in the study. Results: Annual pollutant contents kept decreasing, with the exception of O3. However, the permissible annual levels were exceeded in the cases of PM10, PM2.5, and NO2. Increased contents of SO2, CO, C6H6, PM10, and PM2.5, as well as of As, Pb, Cd, Ni, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in PM particles during winter months indicated that house heating was the source of pollution. Due to no significant change in the monthly NO2 contents, this measurement was used as an indicator of traffic sources of pollution. In winter months, the allowable 24 h PM2.5 and PM10 contents were constantly exceeded. PM was identified as the most significant air pollutant. Enrichment factors revealed that deposited PM was enriched with heavy metals. The potential ecological risk (ERI) was determined to be very high for Cd, considerable for Zn, and low for As, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Tl. The total non-carcinogenic risk indices (HQ) for both adults (HQ = 15.0) and children (HQ = 26.4) exceeded the acceptable value of 1. The total carcinogenic risk indices (CR) for both adults (CR = 1.51 × 10−4) and children (CR = 1.77 × 10−4) exceeded the acceptable level of 1 × 10−4. Conclusions: In the years 2005–2020, a general decreasing tendency of annual pollutant contents was observed. However, the permissible contaminant contents were still exceeded. PM2.5, BaP, PM10, and NO2 were determined as the most dangerous pollutants in inhalational pathway.

Heavy metals exposure and health risk assessment of PM10 particles in indoor air in industrial area

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Yujin Oh ◽  
YoonDeok Han ◽  
Yunjae Kim ◽  
Sunghyeon Jung ◽  
Wonhee Jung ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metals ◽  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Industrial Area ◽  
Metals Exposure

Human health risk assessment: application of the NORISC-HRA and ROME models at two test sites

2006 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 559-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Quercia ◽  
A. Vecchio ◽  
M. Falconi ◽  
L. Togni ◽  
E. Wcislo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Health Risk Assessment ◽  
Human Health Risk ◽  
Human Health Risk Assessment
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