Ecological risk assessment sample

Suter GW II, Efroymson RA, Sample BE, Jones DS. 2000. Ecological risk assessment for contaminated sites. Boca Raton (EL) Lewis Publishers. 

Suter G.W., Efroymson R.A., Sample B.E., Jones D.S. (eds) (2000) Ecological Risk Assessment for Contaminated Site. Boca Raton, FL Lewis Publishers. 

Suter II, G.W., Sample, B.E., Jones, D.S., Ashwood, T.L. and Loar, J.M. (1995) Approach and Strategy for Performing Ecological Risk Assessments for the Department of Energy s Oak Ridge Reservation 1995 Revision, ES/ER/TM-33/R2. Environmental Restoration Division, Oak Ridge, TN. 

The primary focus of this study was to address the basic question - How consistent are the radionuchde concentrations in bee samples If one of the primary objectives is to eventually use data collected from honey bees as part of an environmental monitoring program, or more importantly, as input into an ecological risk assessment model, then one would hope there is a certain degree of consistency between samples. In other words, if 25 samples were collected from a beehive, and each one was analyzed for tritium, one would assume there would be relative consistency between the radiochemical analytical results. A large disparity in the concentrations of tritium in bee samples would make the results suspect. In this study, first the consistency of bee samples collected from a single colony was examined. Second, the consistency of samples collected from several colonies in the same location was assessed. 

At present, one of the challenges we face is the incorporation of these types of sampling data into ecological risk assessment models. How good are the data Can we interpret the analytical results meaningfully Are honey bees a good species to use These are but a few of the issues we will struggle with if we want to successfully employ honey bees as indicators of environmental contamination. 

Recommendation (Demo I) GA-6. The air emissions data from the demonstration tests should be used in a screening risk assessment. The results of the air effluent samples should be subject to (1) a human health risk assessment following the Human Health Risk Assessment Protocol (HHRAP) for Hazardous Waste Combustion Facilities from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [EPA530-D-98-001(A,B>C)] and (2) an ecological risk assessment following a protocol that wiU be released by EPA in the very near future. 

In this chapter the types of genotoxic effects are discussed and then the techniques currently available for detecting genotoxins are briefly described and evaluated. The emphasis is on screening assays for environmental samples and because the aim of ecotoxicology is to study the effect of pollutants on natural populations and not on individual animals per se, the final section discusses the ecological relevance of genotoxic effects and their possible implications for risk assessment. 

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