Assessment Approach

During the scoping step of an EIS, 3. first ranking of those components (e.g. metals and organics) is reconunended, which are classified as potentially hazardous either due to the amount produced, known physicochemical and toxicological characteristics, or in relation to their application and release pattern, their environmental occurrence, or due to a particular site susceptibility. 

When the environmentally most critical components within a complete project cycle are identified (e.g. by their property or total amount), the pathway(s) should be analyzed by which these substances may reach critical concentrations in both man and associated foodwebs. This type of risk estimation, known as critical pathway analysis, is primarily based on the evaluation of existing speciation data, as exemplified in Fig. 3.2 for arsenic and mercury (Preston and Portmann 1981). The differentiation of the most toxic forms of both metals unveils rather early the really critical forms and pathways which these metals may take to reach sensitive targets. To focus on total concentrations alone would fail to understand and predict their true nature or to find out the really relevant routes of exposure. 

To get an early estimate of the potential (risk) or direct threat (hazard) by contaminants, like heavy metals, environmental assessments should check at first, if 

Leaching agent/CHEMICAL FORM I I Ammonium acetate/CATION EXCHANGE 

I -- i Hydroxylamlne hydrochloride/EASILY REDUCIBLE FRACTION hUffllj-H Oxalate buffer/MODERATELY REDUCIBLE FRACTION Hydrogen peroxide/ORGANIC SULFIDIC PHASES RESIDUAL FRACTION 

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Using formalized risk assessment techniques for industrial ventilation projects may complicate the issue more than necessary. The work environment and its exposure conditions are the focus. However, when evaluating new technology, including waste management, the risk assessment approach may be valuable. 

The main thrust of the HF/E approach is to provide the conditions that will optimize human performance and implicitly minimize human error. However, there is rarely any attempt to predict the nature and likelihood of specific human errors and their consequences. By contrast, the study of human error in the context of systems reliability is concerned almost exclusively with these latter issues. It is appropriate to introduce the systems reliability assessment approach to human error at this stage because, until recently, it was largely... 

Get buy-in from local managers. Cooperation of local management and staff will make the whole project much easier and the assessment phase will be the first working contact local staff will have with the project. It is important to set off on the right foot. Using assessment approaches, such as auditing, that are familiar to local staff and are conducted by staff they know of and respect help ensure buy-in. 

Audits. If you select auditing as your assessment approach, you should consider the following ... 

The goals of this chapter do not include a "state of the art" literature review which would be appropriate for a more in-depth discussion of one particular problem area. Rather the intent is to illustrate mechanistic approaches to river quality assessment using the three globally relevant water quality problem areas discussed in the previous chapter dissolved oxygen depletion, erosion/deposition, and potentially toxic trace elements. The information provided does not include all rationale, methology or approaches used in the study as this is beyond the scope of the chapter. Additional general information on application of the intensive river quality assessment approach in the Willamette River basin may be found elsewhere (4-9, 11-14, 17). 

At present the approach to assessing the potential risks of exposure to a chemical in the diet involves the application of a standardised risk assessment approach consisting of three main elements - hazard identification and characterisation and exposure assessment. 

Bassett, J. and McClure, P. (2008). A risk assessment approach for fresh fruits. /. Appl. Microbiol. 104, 925-943. 

Application of the Preliminary Pollutant Limit Value (PPLV) Environmental Risk Assessment Approach to Selected Land Uses... 

Health IfEa (1999) Risk assessment approaches used by UK government for evaluating Human Health Effects of Chemicals. Risk Assessment, Toxicology Steering Committee (RATSC)... 

Figure 5 shows the workflow for a generic approach. In order to simplify and structure the exposure assessment of the waste stage, the current assessment approach distinguishes three main waste streams, each of which is connected... 

Selection of target pharmaceuticals (see Table 1) was based on the following criteria (1) the sales and practices in Spain (according to National Health system), (2) compound pharmacokinetics (the percentage of excretion as nonmetabolized substance), (3) their occurrence in the aquatic media (data taken from other similar studies), and (4) on data provided by environmental risk assessment approaches, which link the calculation of predicted environmental concentrations (PEC) with toxicity data in order to evaluate which compounds are more liable to pose an environmental risk for aquatic organisms [20-22], In the current European... 

Gerberick, G. F., et al., Understanding fragrance allergy using an exposure-based risk assessment approach, Contact Derm. 45, 333-340, 2001. 

General References Guidelines for Hazard Evaluation Procedures, Second Edition with Worked Examples, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York, 1992 Layer of Protection Analysis A Simplified Risk Assessment Approach, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York, 2001 ISA TR84.00.02, Safety Instrumented Functions (SIF)—Safety Integrity Level (SIL) Evaluation Techniques, Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society, N.C., 2002. 

In 1993, the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) published Guidelines for Safe Automation of Chemical Processes (referred to henceforth as Safe Automation). Safe Automation provides guidelines for the application of automation systems used to control and shut down chemical and petrochemical processes. The popularity of one of the hazard and risk analysis methods presented in Safe Automation led to the publication of the 2001 Concept Series book from CCPS, Layer of Protection Analysis A Simplified Risk Assessment Approach. This method builds upon traditional process hazards analysis techniques. It uses a semiquantitative approach to define the required performance for each identified protective system. 

Ecosystem characterization Long-term monitoring should continue in order to enable estimation of natural variability, as well as to establish a baseline against which to evaluate the effects of disturbances. Standard environmental risk assessment approaches may not be useful if the components of the ecosystem in question have not been determined. Further research on... 

These data indicate that hydrophobic chemicals with estrogenic and EROD-inducing potential are widespread in this ecosystem and are readily bioavailable to aquatic organisms living in the system. By incorporating the YES, the recently developed yeast androgen screen, and the EROD assays (Rastall, 2004b) into exposure assessment approaches, a more complete picture of the potential toxicity... 

There are occasional outbursts of skepticism about the value of the risk assessment approach. Some argue its full use is overly burdensome, that the only real need is to identify toxic chemicals and then eliminate them or reduce their presence. Perhaps this approach is appropriate for a few chemicals that exhibit extremely high toxicity or that are excessively persistent and bioaccumulate in an environment, and for which there are reasonably good substitutes available. But as a general approach, it ignores the elementary principle that all chemicals will... 

The environmental risk assessment approach most commonly adopted consists of estimation of the risk quotient (RQ) (as suggested by Hernando et al. [103]), which is defined as the ratio between the environmental concentration (measured or predicted, respectively MEC and PEC) and the predicted no-effect concentration (PNEC), and can be used to collocate compounds in one of three risk bands RQ < 0.1, minimal risk to aquatic organisms 0.1 < RQ < 1, median risk and RQ > 1, high risk [103—105]. In their risk assessment calculations, [106], further to [107], estimated PNEC values at 1,000 times lower than the most sensitive species assayed, so as to take into account the effect on other, potentially more sensitive, aquatic species to those used in toxicity studies. 

For assessment of the snbstitution processes docrrmented in the case studies with regard to the intended risk reduction (certainty of direction) various assessment approaches and strategies can be applied ... 

The protection of ground and surface water has major environmental priority because any contamination may cause a risk for its use in human and animal nutrition and may disturb aquatic biocoenosis. The OECD-indicator list (OECD 1997) subsummarises state and risk assessment approaches under this issue. We will confine our efforts to indicators that are appropriate to evaluate the impact of different farm management practices. 

This activity was launched at the request of the Member countries and the Business and Industry Advisory Commitee (BIAC) to the OECD to ensure that testing and assessment approaches for endocrine dismpters would not substantially differ among countries. An overview of the extent and... 

Yang, R.S., H.A. El-Masri, R.S. Thomas, A.A. Constan, and J.D. Tessari. 1995. The apphcation of physiologically based pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PBPK/PD) modeling for exploring risk assessment approaches for chemical mixtures. Toxicol. Lett. 79 193-200. 

There are of course many mathematically complex ways to perform a risk assessment, but first key questions about the biological data must be resolved. The most sensitive endpoint must be defined along with relevant toxicity and dose-response data. A standard risk assessment approach that is often used is the so-called divide by 10 rule . Dividing the dose by 10 applies a safety factor to ensure that even the most sensitive individuals are protected. Animal studies are typically used to establish a dose-response curve and the most sensitive endpoint. From the dose-response curve a NOAEL dose or no observed adverse effect level is derived. This is the dose at which there appears to be no adverse effects in the animal studies at a particular endpoint, which could be cancer, liver damage, or a neuro-behavioral effect. This dose is then divided by 10 if the animal data are in any way thought to be inadequate. For example, there may be a great deal of variability, or there were adverse effects at the lowest dose, or there were only tests of short-term exposure to the chemical. An additional factor of 10 is used when extrapolating from animals to humans. Last, a factor of 10 is used to account for variability in the human population or to account for sensitive individuals such as children or the elderly. The final number is the reference dose (RfD) or acceptable daily intake (ADI). This process is summarized below. 

Ferenc S, Foran J, editors, 2000. Multiple stressors in ecological risk and impact assessment approaches to risk estimation. Pensacola (EL) SETAC and Chemistry Press. 

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