Hazardous Environments decision making

The acute and/or chronic nature of the toxicity of a chemical should be part of any decision-making process about its use or subsequent release. The focus cannot be solely on reduction of acute hazards, which tends to be easily achievable. The majority of cases in which chemicals have been released into the environment, only to cause serious ecological impacts over large spatial scales, were usually identified after many years, and at chronic low-dose exposures, with low acute toxicity to nontarget organisms. The classic examples of DDT and other chlorinated pesticides such as dieldrin and toxaphene, along with PCBs, exemplify the flaws in an approach that focuses on acute hazards, with more recent examples being the perfluorinated... 

An incident creates a dynamic environment, the decisions made in the initial analysis and the corresponding responses are critical to a desirable outcome. The continued thoughtful consideration of the interdependencies between the hazards, location, equipment, personnel, and cascading effects will make for sound decision making and appropriate resource allocation. 

In 1994, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 12898, requiring all federal agencies to make achieving environmental justice part of their mission . The federal government s definition of environmental justice has two parts equal protection from environmental and health hazards, and equal access to the decision-making processes that create a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work. EJ is about fair treatment, and about expanding democracy to include everyone who is affected by a decision. 

The intention of this Council Act is to ensure that data generated in the safety testing of chemicals are of high quality and are based on internationally harmonized methods. Such data can then be used to assess chemical hazards and to make decisions on appropriate activities to prevent or reduce risk to human health or the environment. Where the need for duplicative testing is minimized through MAD, testing costs can... 

In this work, we propose a methodology for multi-ohjective emergency response decision-making around chemical plants. In the past decades, a large number of severe accidents have been reported in the chemical industry and in the energy sector. Nuclear power plants as well as the handling or transportation of certain quantities of hazardous materials (toxic, flammable and/or explosive) can potentially create major accidents endangering the public and workers health as well as the environment. 

Ecological risk assessment is an integral part of theRI/FS process, which is designed to support risk management decision-making for Superfund sites. (The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 [CERCLA, or Superfund], as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 [SARA], authorizes the USEPA to protect public health and welfare, and the environment from the release or potential release of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.) The RI component of the process characterizes the nature and extent of contamination at a hazardous waste site and estimates risks to human health and the environment posed by contaminants at the site. The FS component... 

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