Environmental threats, evaluation

Risk assessment An evaluation of the potential impacts of a chemical or physical hazard on human health or the environment. A risk assessment is the first step in managing and minimizing risks. Risk assessments often include identifying human health or environmental threats, possible exposure routes (e.g. inhalation, digestion, or contact with skin), the likely duration of any exposure, and the individuals that are at risk (e.g. workers, the general public, or both). A risk assessment may also involve defining the probability of an adverse effect and establishing safety limits based on health standards. 

Risk evaluation in the assessment process focuses on weighing the health and environmental threats posed by an identified hazard. First, the possibility and probability that a person will actually experience an adverse effect as a result of the existence of the environmental hazard and exposure to it must be weighed and, secondly, the number of persons who might be exposed must be considered. 

Social studies by Kaijalainen and Habeck (2004) about environmental pollution in Vorkuta revealed that air pollution was perceived to be the primary environmental threat, the prineipal sourees being coal combustion from power and heating plants, coal mines and a eement factory. Here, local inhabitants evaluated air pollution by direct observations and personal experiences, such as contamination of washed clothes left out to dry, diseolouration of snow, and respiratory problems. 

Today consumers and producers have started to be more aware of protecting the environment by preferring more environmentally friendly products and production methods. Many textile and clothing brands have started to promote their goods or services with eco-labels around the world. LCA methodology can be used as one of the objective processes to define key impact areas, evaluate potential environmental threats, make environmental decisions and ensure eco-labelling and certification of textiles. 

Considerable concern has been raised over the carcinogenic potential of 2,4-D. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) has evaluated the environmental health aspects of this chemical and concluded that 2,4-D posed an insignificant threat to the environment. They did indicate, however, that... 

Environmental contamination, either from diffuse or point sources, may compromise the ability of ecosystems to provide society with those goods and services that we require. Contamination is also linked to other widely recognised anthropogenic threats to sustainable functioning of our planet, such as the loss of biodiversity. As many soil properties and processes are conferred by soil biota, it is currently widely agreed that biological characteristics should be taken into account when evaluating the quality, or health, of soil [13, 16]. 

M. G. Prodanchuk, V. I. Medvedev, R. Yu. Sova. - Evaluation of Threat of Environmental Pollution with Dioxins and Biphenyls under Thermal Treatment of Solid Domestic Waste. In the book Cleanness of the Environment in Our City.- Theses of Reports.- Ukraine, Lviv.- 1999.-p.l6-18... 

The SC is subjected to various environmental chemical threats. Squamometry S was designed to test the effect of surfactants on the SC in vivo.6,7,14,64 Several studies have confirmed the reliability of such a method in predicting irritation by selected xenobiotics61,65-70 and protection afforded against them by diverse agents.62,71 As such, squamometry S appears to be a suitable method for evaluating... 

The mere presence of any single chemical or chemical mixture in the environment does not indicate that a health threat exists. An important step of mixture risk assessment is the evaluation of completed exposure pathways. Completed exposure pathways link together the source of contamination, environmental medium, point of exposure, route of exposure, and a receptor population. It means that without the potential for chemicals actually entering (or contacting) the human body, no threat is present. 

CERCLA was passed in 1980 to provide a federally supervised system for the mitigation of chronic environmental damage, particularly the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous waste. In 1986, CERCLA was amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA). Each Superfund site has been assessed, characterized, and prioritized based on risk. Potential sites are first screened using a preliminary assessment (PA) sites deemed a significant threat are then evaluated using a hazard ranking system (HRS) to measure the risk of the site relative to that of other potential sites. The most hazardous sites are then placed on the NPL in the order of their potential risk. 

As with other sectors of our society, the operating environment of the pipeline industry has been profoundly altered by September 11, 2001. Security has been elevated to a priority that previously had not been required when the major threat was an occasional and usually minor act of vandalism. In most cases, the threat with gas pipelines may be economic disruption more than public or environmental safety for most incident locations. The lines are buried through most of their runs and there may be more attractive surface targets. However, the threat is real and is being addressed. It is beyond the scope of this entry to elaborate in detail, but enhanced security measures are being evaluated and implemented throughout the industry. 

A. Theater Army Medical Laboratory (TAML). TAML s mission is to identify and evaluate health hazard in an area of operations by using laboratory analyses and rapid health hazard assessment of nuclear, radiological, biological, chemical, endemic disease, environmental and occupations heath threats. 

For the past few years, a number of Central and East European politicians and scientists have been concerned over the environmental situation of this region, and in health care. With the achievement of parliamentary democracy, the evaluation of environmental health has also changed and increasing powerful efforts are made so that scientists will not hinder attempts to fully characterize the threat to human health. 

The uptake of metals from agricultural soil by crops and vegetables is an important pathway through which metals in contaminated soils impose health threats to organisms. On the other hand, the capacity of plant roots to remove heavy metals from contaminated soils is an emerging environmental cleanup and remedial biotechnology. In order to evaluate the risks of metal contamination in the area, it is essential to understand metal bioavailability, which depends on a metal s chemical form in the soil, rather than on the total amount accumulated (Allen, 1997 Zemberyova etal, 1998). 

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