Barriers and Bridges to Integrating Health and Ecological Risk Assessment: A Workshop. Jane Staveley, ARCADIS Geraghty & Miller, Inc., Research Triangle Park, NC; and Annie Jarabek, U.S. EPA, National Center for Environmental Assessment, Research Triangle Park, NC
Environmental managers must make decisions that are protective of human health and the environment. These decisions should be, but rarely are, based upon information that integrates both health and ecological risk assessments. A workshop was held to bring together scientists practicing in the areas of health and ecological risk assessment to explore similarities and differences in their respective approaches, enhance the dialogue between these two practices, and explore tools that can promote more integrated risk assessments. The workshop was held in October of 2000, and was jointly sponsored by the Research Triangle Chapter of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) and the Carolinas Chapter of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC). Participants represented state and federal government, academia, industry, and consulting firms.
The workshop began by providing participants with an overview of the "state of the science" in both health risk assessment and ecological risk assessment. This was followed by presentations of case studies that highlight the ecological and human health approaches in two different contexts: chemical-specific versus site-specific risk assessments. The next presentation discussed a new "Framework for the Integration of Health and Ecological Risk Assessment." A series of presentations and discussions followed to allow a more detailed examination of specific topics, with one presenter discussing the ecological risk perspective and the other discussing the health risk perspective. These topics included: fate and transport/bioavailability/dosimetry; scale/level of analysis; indicators/adverse effects; extrapolation; uncertainty; and risk communication. The workshop concluded with a panel discussion based on questions submitted by the attendees. This poster will present observations on the process as well as summarize the key issues for the individual disciplines and challenge of integration.
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