The Health Risk Assessment / Health Risk Management Paradigm

Scientific data Problem Formulation

Epidemiologic studies ø • Discussions Am ong “Risk
(Clinical Studies) Assessors,” “ Risk Managers,” and
Rodent studies “Stakeh olders”
Mechanistic expe riments

Exposure Monitoring

Environmental Fate and Risk Assessment

transp ort Modeling ø
• Hazard Identification
• Dose Response Assessment
• Exposure Assessment
• Risk Characterization

Risk Communication
• More D iscussions A mo ng R isk
Assessors, Risk Managers, and
Stakeholders
Decision or Action
No Action
Information Programs
Econom ic Incentives
Risk Management
*
Ambient Standards
Pollution Prevention
• Evaluatio n of Pub lic Health, So cial, Chemical Substitution
Economic, Political, Engineering Chemical Ban
Factors
Quantitative Health (Cancer) Risk Assessment:
Interpretation, and interpolation.

50%

40%
Probability of cancer

30%

20%

10%

0%
1 10 100 1,000 10,000 100,000
Airborne benzene, micrograms/cubic meter

CalEPA Observed MLE UCL95 on MLE

Figure 1. Epidemiologic exposure-response (AML) data for benzene. Note that the
x-axis is a log-scale.

1.8

1.6 All Cancer Deaths

All Deaths

1.4 Coronary Heart Disease

Deaths
RATE RATIO

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6+

DRINKS PER DAY

Alcoholic Beverages dose-response curves (Boffetta & Garfinkel, 1990).

Figure by MIT OCW.