PEP-M5.
Quantitative Environmental Risk Analysis for Human Health RA Fjeld, Clemson University
; TA DeVol*, Clemson University; NE Martinez, Clemson University
Abstract: Environmental risk analysis is complex and interdisciplinary. While risk analysis involves equal contribution of risk communication, risk management and risk assessment, this lecture will focus on the latter. Risk assessments are conducted to quantify the likelihood of human health effects from an actual or potential release of a contaminant and are often conducted to meet a regulatory requirement. Quantitative risk assessment can be broken down into four steps: release assessment, transport assessment, exposure assessment, and consequence assessment. The objective of the release assessment is to identify the contaminants released and quantify the release rate. The objective of the transport assessment is to quantify the contaminant concentration in air, groundwater, surface water and food stuffs following movement of the contaminant in the environment from the release to the human receptor. The objective of the exposure assessment is to quantify the effective dose (Sv) or effective dose rate (Sv/hr) from a radiological contaminant, or the dose (mg of contaminant per kg of body mass) or average daily dose (mg of contaminant per kg of body mass per day) for a chemical contaminant. The exposure assessment will depend on the route of exposure: inhalation, ingestion, skin absorption/penetration as well as possibly external exposure from a radiological contaminant. The objective of the consequence assessment is to quantify the deterministic effects and/or the probability of stochastics effects in a human that may result from the exposure. In this lecture we will explore the fundamental concepts and analytical methods to quantify risk of radiological and chemical contaminants released into the environment on human health.
|
