Assessing Toxic Risk

How can we decide what concentration of arsenic is acceptable in public drinking water? What does it mean to say that Vitamin D is a highly toxic chemical? How can we balance the risks of spraying pesticides versus the risks of insect-borne diseases such as West Nile Virus, Lyme Disease, or Malaria? Students discover the answers to these intriguing questions and more by delving into the Cornell Scientific Inquiry Series: Assessing Toxic Risk, Teacher Edition.

The public depends on competent risk assessment from the federal government and the scientific community to grapple with the threat of pollution. When risk reports turn out to be overblownâ€"or when risks are overlookedâ€"public skepticism abounds. This comprehensive and readable book explores how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can improve its risk assessment practices, with a focus on implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. With a wealth of detailed information, pertinent examples, and revealing analysis, the volume explores the "default option" and other basic concepts. It offers two views of EPA operations: The first examines how EPA currently assesses exposure to hazardous air pollutants, evaluates the toxicity of a substance, and characterizes the risk to the public. The second, more holistic, view explores how EPA can improve in several critical areas of risk assessment by focusing on cross-cutting themes and incorporating more scientific judgment. This comprehensive volume will be important to the EPA and other agencies, risk managers, environmental advocates, scientists, faculty, students, and concerned individuals.

Provides a complete understanding of how our bodies respond to toxicants, and the principles used to assess the health risks of specific exposure scenarios Toxicology and Risk Assessment: A Comprehensive Introduction, Second Edition reflects recent advances in science and technology, and provides the scientific background and methodological issues to enable the reader to understand the basic principles in toxicology and to evaluate the health risks of specific exposure scenarios. Completely updated with the latest information, this book offers a concise introduction to the subject. It is divided into five sections: Principles in Toxicology, Organ Toxicology, Methods in Toxicology, Regulatory Toxicology, and Specific Toxicity. The 2nd Edition adds new chapters that cover recent scientific and technological advances and current topics including the endocrine system, alternatives to animal testing, risk assessment and thresholds for carcinogens, European and international regulation, nanomaterials, fuels, fragrances, and agrochemicals. Concentrates on the basic concepts of toxicology and provides sufficient information for the reader to become familiar with them in order to understand the principles and to evaluate the risks at given exposures 30% new chapters cover recent scientific and technological advances including alternatives to animal testing; genotoxic carcinogens; REACH regulations; nanomaterials; fuels; fragrances; PAHs; and agrochemicals Written by a team of international specialists, and edited by two outstanding scientists in the field Fully updated and expanded, Toxicology and Risk Assessment: A Comprehensive Introduction, Second Edition is an essential text for any student or researcher with an interest in toxicology and related risk assessments.

Risk assessment has become a dominant public policy tool for making choices, based on limited resources, to protect public health and the environment. It has been instrumental to the mission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as other federal agencies in evaluating public health concerns, informing regulatory and technological decisions, prioritizing research needs and funding, and in developing approaches for cost-benefit analysis. However, risk assessment is at a crossroads. Despite advances in the field, risk assessment faces a number of significant challenges including lengthy delays in making complex decisions; lack of data leading to significant uncertainty in risk assessments; and many chemicals in the marketplace that have not been evaluated and emerging agents requiring assessment. Science and Decisions makes practical scientific and technical recommendations to address these challenges. This book is a complement to the widely used 1983 National Academies book, Risk Assessment in the Federal Government (also known as the Red Book). The earlier book established a framework for the concepts and conduct of risk assessment that has been adopted by numerous expert committees, regulatory agencies, and public health institutions. The new book embeds these concepts within a broader framework for risk-based decision-making. Together, these are essential references for those working in the regulatory and public health fields.

Included are planning forms, presentation guidelines, and peer review forms that guide students through self-designed research projects that encourage critical thinking. This integrated approach allows students to discover firsthand the natural links between biology, chemistry, environmental science, and human health.

The practice of performing and managing regulatory air toxic risk assessments requires an exceptionally broadbase of understanding. The information and hands-on skills needed to evaluate the effects of air toxic emissions on human health derive from a broad range of disciplines: engineering, the physical and biological sciences, probability, statistics, and medicine. Dr. Lawrence Gratt's Air Toxic Risk Assessment and Management provides a comprehensive study of the subject of risk assessment, showing how the various disciplines are integrated to carry out this complex process. No other resource combines the basic science underlying risk assessment with the techniques needed to perform the analyses.