Risk-Based Environmental Decisions

by Crawford-Brown, Douglas J.

• ISBN13: 9780792386247
• ISBN10: 0792386248
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-09-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

Risk-Based Environmental Decision: Methods and Culture presents the principles of human health risk analysis as they are applied in environmental decisions. It balances the discussion of scientific theory and methods, philosophical analysis, and applications in regulatory decisions. The material is directed towards risk analysts who must apply their skills in a policy setting, and towards policy analysts who must use risk estimates. The presentation is suited ideally as an introductory text on the methods of risk analysis and on the cultural issues that underlie these methodologies. An important feature of Risk-Based Environmental Decision: Methods and Culture is that it is designed around a series of detailed case studies of environmental risk analysis which walk the reader from the historical nature of the problem, to the formulation as a risk-based problem, to the conduct of risk analysis, and on to the application, debate, and defense of the risk analysis.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Risk, Rationality and Decisions	1	(38)
Analysis of Risk	1	(3)
Conceptions of Risk	4	(9)
Rationality and Risk	13	(3)
Rationality and Logic Trees	16	(6)
The Uses of Risk Analysis	22	(8)
Risk, Values and Culture	30	(9)
The Structure of Environmental Risk Assessments	39	(30)
Formulating the Problem	39	(5)
Hazard Identification	44	(15)
Risk Characterization	59	(6)
Risk Communication	65	(4)
Assessing Exposure	69	(26)
Emerging Pathogens	69	(1)
Identifying Sources and Characterizing Strength	70	(3)
Dispersion and Fate	73	(2)
Dispersion Coefficients and Equilibrium Ratios	75	(5)
Areal-weighted, Time-weighted and Population-weighted Averages	80	(1)
Exposure Pathways	81	(3)
ADRI and MIR	84	(5)
Data and Models	89	(3)
Summarizing Exposure	92	(3)
Exposure-Response Assessment	95	(28)
Environmental Radon	95	(1)
Pharmacokinetics	96	(7)
Pharmacodynamics and Dose-Response	103	(7)
Missing Steps	110	(2)
Human Equivalent Concentrations	112	(3)
Intersubject Variability	115	(4)
The Social Construction of the Causes of Risk Variation	119	(4)
Regulatory Science: Risk and Decisions	123	(36)
Decisions and the Precautionary Principle	123	(5)
NOELs, NOAELs, LOELs and LOAELs	128	(6)
RfDs and RfCs	134	(7)
Benchmark Doses	141	(2)
Hazard Quotients and Hazard Indices	143	(1)
Linear Carcinogens	144	(2)
Nonlinear Carcinogens	146	(2)
Exposure Limits and Ample Margin of Safety	148	(6)
Risk, Science and the Courts	154	(5)
Uncertainty and Variability Analysis	159	(32)
Protecting Against Risk	159	(3)
Principles of Uncertainty for Discrete Options	162	(11)
Uncertainty for Continuous Variables	173	(6)
EPA Guidelines on Monte Carlo Analysis	179	(1)
Sensitivity Analysis	180	(2)
Variability Analysis	182	(3)
Nested Analyses	185	(1)
Risk-Based Decision Under Variability and Uncertainty	186	(5)
Risk, Systems Analysis and Optimization	191	(30)
Risk Management Options	191	(3)
A Decision Problem	194	(11)
Optimization Principles	205	(4)
Applying the Lessons	209	(4)
Closing Comments	213	(8)
Index	221