REGULATORY AND POLICY BASIS FOR RISK ASSESSMENT

3 Risks Associated with Contaminated Sites and Groundwater 

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The state as main actor - substance assessment by the state as the basis for risk reducing activity, mainly by means of regulatory policies. The responsibility for dealing with limited knowledge was almost exclusively that of the state and was hardly that of the other market players . 

Regulatory officials nevertheless act on the basis of such hypothetical risks ( hypothetical definitely does not mean imaginary it means that the risk estimates are based on certain scientific hypotheses and that they have not been empirically tested). Such actions are in part based on legal requirements (Chapter 11) and in part on the prudence that is a traditional feature of public health policies. The scientific information, assumptions, and extrapolation models upon which risk assessments are based are considered sufficiently revealing on the question of human risk to prompt risk-control measures. To put off such actions until it is seen whether the hypothesized risks are real - to wait for a human body count - is considered to be an unacceptable course. 

A vital objective of future European chemicals policy is to avoid uncontrolled handling of hazardous substances. Assessment of each individual application on the basis of the individual substances involved (as provided for by the current regulatory system) is not an apt strategy, as the number of assessment and management cases that it produces is much too high. Quantitative risk analyses are only taken into account in the case of substances with clearly definable effect thresholds and controllable application conditions. For 90% of the market actors the particular product or application system must possess intrinsically safe properties, as most companies have neither closed systems nor the reqnired skills to deal with hazardons snbstances. 

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