Air Toxics Risk Assessment Reference Library

Air Toxics Risk Assessment Reference Library
Author: United States Environmental Protection Agency
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 486
Release: 2015-01-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781507552643

This resource document is the third in the Air Toxics Risk Assessment (ATRA) Library series. It presents an overview of the overall process and tools for evaluating cumulative risk from multiple air toxics emitted from sources at the community level and developing and implementing risk reduction activities to bring about meaningful environmental change. Volume 1: Technical Resource Manual discusses the overall air toxics risk assessment process and the basic technical tools needed to perform these analyses. The manual addresses both human health and ecological analyses. It also provides a basic overview of the process of managing and communicating risk assessment results. Other evaluations (such as the public health assessment process) are described to give assessors, risk managers, and other stakeholders a more holistic understanding of the many issues that may come into play when evaluating the potential impact of air toxics on human health and the environment. Readers with a limited understanding of risk assessment are encouraged to consult Volume 1. Volume 2: Facility-Specific Assessment (this volume) builds on the technical tools described in Volume 1 by providing an example set of tools and procedures that can be used for source-specific or facility-specific risk assessments. Information is also provided on tiered approaches to source- or facility-specific risk analysis. Volume 3: Community-Level Assessment builds on the information presented in Volume 1 to describe to communities how they can evaluate and reduce air toxics risks at the local level. The volume will include information on screening level and more detailed analytical approaches, how to balance the need for assessment versus the need for action, and how to identify and prioritize risk reduction options and measure success. Since community concerns and issues are often not related solely to air toxics, the document will also present readily available information on additional multimedia risk factors that may affect communities and strategies to reduce those risks. The document will provide additional, focused information on stakeholder involvement, communicating information in a community-based setting, and resources and methodologies that may play a role in the overall process. Note that EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics has also developed a Community Air Screening How To Manual that will be available in 2004 and will be discussed in Volume 3.

Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment

Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 668
Release: 1994-01-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 030904894X

The public depends on competent risk assessment from the federal government and the scientific community to grapple with the threat of pollution. When risk reports turn out to be overblownâ€"or when risks are overlookedâ€"public skepticism abounds. This comprehensive and readable book explores how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can improve its risk assessment practices, with a focus on implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. With a wealth of detailed information, pertinent examples, and revealing analysis, the volume explores the "default option" and other basic concepts. It offers two views of EPA operations: The first examines how EPA currently assesses exposure to hazardous air pollutants, evaluates the toxicity of a substance, and characterizes the risk to the public. The second, more holistic, view explores how EPA can improve in several critical areas of risk assessment by focusing on cross-cutting themes and incorporating more scientific judgment. This comprehensive volume will be important to the EPA and other agencies, risk managers, environmental advocates, scientists, faculty, students, and concerned individuals.

Science and Decisions

Science and Decisions
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2009-03-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0309120462

Risk assessment has become a dominant public policy tool for making choices, based on limited resources, to protect public health and the environment. It has been instrumental to the mission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as other federal agencies in evaluating public health concerns, informing regulatory and technological decisions, prioritizing research needs and funding, and in developing approaches for cost-benefit analysis. However, risk assessment is at a crossroads. Despite advances in the field, risk assessment faces a number of significant challenges including lengthy delays in making complex decisions; lack of data leading to significant uncertainty in risk assessments; and many chemicals in the marketplace that have not been evaluated and emerging agents requiring assessment. Science and Decisions makes practical scientific and technical recommendations to address these challenges. This book is a complement to the widely used 1983 National Academies book, Risk Assessment in the Federal Government (also known as the Red Book). The earlier book established a framework for the concepts and conduct of risk assessment that has been adopted by numerous expert committees, regulatory agencies, and public health institutions. The new book embeds these concepts within a broader framework for risk-based decision-making. Together, these are essential references for those working in the regulatory and public health fields.

Exposure and Risk Assessment of Chemical Pollution - Contemporary Methodology

Exposure and Risk Assessment of Chemical Pollution - Contemporary Methodology
Author: Mahmoud A. Hassanien
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 538
Release: 2009-03-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9048123356

The book contains the contributions at the NATO Study Institute on Exposure and Risk Assessment of Chemical Pollution – Contemporary Methodology, which took place in Sofia – Borovetz, Bulgaria, July 1–10, 2008. Rapid advances in mathematics, computer science and molecular biology and chemistry have lead to the development in of a new branch of toxicology called Computational Toxicology. This emerging field is addressing the estimation and prediction of exposure risk and effects of chemicals based on experimental data, measured concentration and biological mechanisms and computational models of biological systems. Mathematical models are also being used to predict the fate and transport of substances in the environment. Because this area is still in its infancy, there has been limited application from governmental agencies to regulating controllable processes, such as registration of new chemicals, determination of estimated exposure and risk based limits and maximum acceptable concentrations in different compartments of the environment – ambient air, waters, soil and food products. However, this is soon to change as the ability to collect, analyze and interpret the required information is becoming increasingly more efficient and cost effective. Full implementation of the new processes have to involve education on both part of the experimentalists who are generating the data and the models, and the risk assessors who will use them to better protect human health and the environment.

WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality

WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality
Author:
Publisher: World Health Organization
Total Pages: 488
Release: 2010
Genre: House & Home
ISBN:

This book presents WHO guidelines for the protection of public health from risks due to a number of chemicals commonly present in indoor air. The substances considered in this review, i.e. benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, naphthalene, nitrogen dioxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (especially benzo[a]pyrene), radon, trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, have indoor sources, are known in respect of their hazardousness to health and are often found indoors in concentrations of health concern. The guidelines are targeted at public health professionals involved in preventing health risks of environmental exposures, as well as specialists and authorities involved in the design and use of buildings, indoor materials and products. They provide a scientific basis for legally enforceable standards.

Code of Federal Regulations

Code of Federal Regulations
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2008
Genre: Administrative law
ISBN:

Special edition of the Federal Register, containing a codification of documents of general applicability and future effect ... with ancillaries.

Risk Assessment Methods

Risk Assessment Methods
Author: V.T. Covello
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2013-06-29
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1489912169

Much has already been written about risk assessment. Epidemiologists write books on how risk assessment is used to explore the factors that influence the distribution of disease in populations of people. Toxicologists write books on how risk assess ment involves exposing animals to risk agents and concluding from the results what risks people might experience if similarly exposed. Engineers write books on how risk assessment is utilized to estimate the risks of constructing a new facility such as a nuclear power plant. Statisticians write books on how risk assessment may be used to analyze mortality or accident data to determine risks. There are already many books on risk assessment-the trouble is that they all seem to be about different sUbjects! This book takes another approach. It brings together all the methods for assessing risk into a common framework, thus demonstrating how the various methods relate to one another. This produces four important benefits: • First, it provides a comprehensive reference for risk assessment. This one source offers readers concise explanations of the many methods currently available for describing and quantifying diverse types of risks. • Second, it consistently evaluates and compares available risk assessment methods and identifies their specific strengths and limitations. Understand ing the limitations of risk assessment methods is important. The field is still in its infancy, and the problems with available methods are disappoint ingly numerous. At the same time, risk assessment is being used.

Quantitative Environmental Risk Analysis for Human Health

Quantitative Environmental Risk Analysis for Human Health
Author: Robert A. Fjeld
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2023-08-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1119675405

QUANTITATIVE ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ANALYSIS FOR HUMAN HEALTH An updated edition of the foundational guide to environmental risk analysis Environmental risk analysis is a systematic process essential for the evaluation, management, and communication of the human health risk posed by the release of contaminants to the environment. Performed correctly, risk analysis is an essential tool in the protection of the public from the health hazards posed by chemical and radioactive contaminants. Cultivating the quantitative skills required to perform risk analysis competently is a critical need. Quantitative Environmental Risk Analysis for Human Health meets this need with a thorough, comprehensive coverage of the fundamental knowledge necessary to assess environmental impacts on human health. It introduces readers to a robust methodology for analyzing environmental risk, as well as to the fundamental principles of uncertainty analysis and the pertinent environmental regulations. Now updated to reflect the latest research and new cutting-edge methodologies, this is an essential contribution to the practice of environmental risk analysis. Readers of the second edition of Quantitative Environmental Risk Analysis for Human Health will also find: Detailed treatment of source and release characterization, contaminant migration, exposure assessment, and more New coverage of computer-based analytical methods A new chapter of case studies providing actual, real-world examples of environmental risk assessments Quantitative Environmental Risk Analysis for Human Health is must-have for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in civil engineering, environmental engineering, and environmental science, as well as for risk analysis practitioners in industry, environmental consultants, and regulators.