Inductive risk analysis methods

Methods and techniques for measurement, sampling, and analysis Types, sources, and characteristics of hazards, threats, and vulnerabilities Hazard analysis, job safety analysis and task analysis methods Qualitative, quantitative, deductive, and inductive risk assessment methods Risk-based decision-making Risk-based decision-making tools... 

This type of hazards analysis can be either deductive or inductive. A deductive (top-down) analysis is one that first defines an undesirable event, and then considers what events and chains of circumstances are needed to occur before the overall undesirable event occurs. A deductive approach is used by detectives to solve crimes. A widely used type of deductive analysis in process risk analysis is the fault tree method, described in the next chapter. 

Decomposition involves the liberation of the analyte (metal) of interest from an interfering matrix by using a reagent (mineral/oxidizing acids or fusion flux) and/or heat. The utilization of reagents (acids) and external heat sources can in itself cause problems. In elemental analysis, these problems are particularly focused on the risk of contamination and loss of analytes. It should be borne in mind that complete digestion may not always be required as atomic spectroscopy frequently uses a hot source, e.g. flame or inductively coupled plasma, which provides a secondary method of sample destruction. Therefore, methods that allow sample dissolution may equally be as useful. 

In terms of metals analysis, the availability of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is now providing better detection limits for important elements and wider simultaneous determinand suites than ICP-OES, though it is not reliable for the measurement of some contaminants such as mercury. Applied research into sequential extraction methods and physiologically based extraction techniques is informing our understanding of the role and importance of contaminant bioavailability in risk assessments.29,36,37... 

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