Generic risk assessment

THERP (NUREG/CR-1278), is used to estimate HEPs for a risk assessment. It provides error probabilities for generic tasks and describes the process used to modify these rates depending on the specific performance shaping factors (PSFs) involved in the task... 

Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) (2003) Descriptions of Selected Key Generic Terms Used in Chemical Hazard/Risk Assessment. OECD, Paris. 

R.C. Honeycutt, The Usefulness of Farm Worker Exposure Estimates Based on Generic Data, in Dermal Exposure Related to Pesticide Use Discussion of Risk Assessment, ed. R.C. Honeycutt, G. Zweig, and N.N. Ragsdale, ACS Symposium Series 273, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, pp. 369-375 (1985). 

Because few generic frequency data were available on VCEs in similar facilities, a risk screening per Chapter 4 of this book was not performed. Instead, as a next step, the decision was made to perform a qualitative risk assessment. 

If the risk assessment based on generic data and default values (after consideration of protective measures) does not provide a sufficient margin of safety, compound-specific data on the DFR will have to be developed. These data will afterwards be used in the above outlined procedure instead of generic data from literature. 

Figure 1. Generic exposure and risk assessment methodology for environmental pollutants.

OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2003) Descriptions of selected key generic terms used in chemical hazard/risk assessment. ENV/JM/MONO(2003) 15. OECD Series on Testing and assessment 44... 

A number of EIA theorists believe in incorporating formal RA methods into EIA as a way to cope with uncertainties, especially in impact prediction where a formal framework for ecological risk assessment (EcoRA) is already developed. It includes three generic phases problem formulation, analysis, and risk characterization followed by risk management. The analysis phase includes an exposure assessment and an ecological effects assessment (see, e.g., US EPA (1998)). 

Note that in these several examples certain kinds of assumption are used to estimate intakes. In the TCE examples all adults were assumed to consume 2 liters of water each day and were also assumed to weigh 80 kg. Obviously in any population exposed to the contaminated water, it is unlikely that these two assumptions apply with high accuracy to any actual individuals. In fact the assumptions may be quite inaccurate for some individuals, even while they might be reasonably representative, on average, for most. It is in fact not possible to conduct risk assessments without the use of assumptions such as these, and so the individuals that are the subjects of typical risk assessments might be described as generic rather than actual. As will become clear in the later chapters on risk assessment, this type of generic evaluation is appropriate and useful for the purposes of public health protection. 

OECD. 2003. Descriptions of Selected Key Generic Terms Used in Chemical Hazard/Risk Assessment. Joint Project with IPCS on the Harmonisation of Hazard/Risk Assessment Terminology. OECD Series on Testing and Assessment No. 44. Environment Directorate, Joint Meeting of the Chemicals Committee and the Working Party on Chemicals, Pesticides and Biotechnology. ENV/JM/MONO (2003)15. Paris OECD. 

Alphabetical List of Selected Generic Terms in Hazard and Risk Assessment and Their Definitions... 

Other terms often used indiscriminately for the dose-response relationship include concentration-effect relationship and dose-effect relationship. According to the joint OECD/IPCS project (OECD 2003 a), which has developed internationally harmonized generic and technical terms used in chemical hazard and risk assessment, the following definitions have been provided although consensus was not achieved ... 

ECETOC (2004) has proposed a concept of generic threshold values based on hazard categories primarily intended to be used in the risk assessment procedure of industrial chemicals within REACH. The hazard categories are based on EU classihcation limits and for each substance to be risk assessed, inclusion in hazard categories depends on the substance s specific classification (or no classification) according to the Commission Directive 67/548/EC (EC 1967). Three hazard categories have been suggested ... 

USEPA] US Environmental Protection Agency. 2003. Generic ecological assessment endpoints (GEAEs) for ecological risk assessment. Risk Assessment Forum. Washington (DC) USEPA. 

There seems to be a desire among the workshop participants to develop a series of standard distributions, or distribution parameters, for exposure and effects variables that are generally used in risk assessments. In the case of toxicity data, for example, investigations leading to the quantification of a generic variance for between-species variation from pooled data for many pesticides may be useful (Luttik and Aldenberg 1997). 

Risk Assessment. The overall compilation and assessment of the factors that must be considered in designing and siting geologic repositories is pulled together in a general discipline of risk assessment. Risk assessment calculations develop both generic and site specific models and calculate the potential transport times as a result of various phenomena. Calculations are being... 

Risk assessment (i.e., calculation of risk) is a complex, multi-step process, and the results usually have a significant degree of uncertainty because of limitations in data and in the models of environmental and biological systems. In addition, for purposes of generally classifying waste, risk assessment must be generic i.e., it is not intended to apply to disposition of a specific waste in a specific manner at a specific site. 

A risk-based waste classification system must focus on the inherent characteristics of waste, representative facilities, and generic events, because the system necessarily presumes that specific disposal sites and related waste treatment and disposal technologies have not yet been identified and characterized. NCRP emphasizes that the principles, framework, and implementation details of a risk-based waste classification system do not provide a substitute for site-specific risk assessments. The two most important cases where site-specific risk must be estimated are (1) an assessment of risk for the spectrum of actual wastes at a specific disposal site for the purpose of establishing site-specific waste acceptance criteria, and (2) an assessment of risk posed by a prior waste disposal at a site for the purpose of determining whether the risk is unacceptable and, thus, whether remedial action is required at the site. 

In general, calculation of the risk or dose from waste disposal in the numerator of the risk index in Equation 6.2 or 6.3 involves the risk assessment process discussed in Section 3.1.5.1. As summarized in Section 6.1.3, NCRP recommends that generic scenarios for exposure of hypothetical inadvertent intruders at waste disposal sites should be used in calculating risk or dose for purposes of waste classification. Implementation of models describing exposure scenarios for inadvertent intruders at waste disposal sites and their associated exposure pathways generally results in estimates of risk or dose per unit concentration of hazardous substances in waste. These results then are combined with the assumptions about allowable risk discussed in the previous section to obtain limits on concentrations of hazardous substances in exempt or low-hazard waste. 

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