Enhancing the Ecological Risk Assessment Process (original) (raw)
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Limitations of the Current Practices Used to Perform Ecological Risk Assessment
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 2008
The framework for ecological risk assessments has provided a way to analyze stressors in the environment. Despite the power of this tool to inform environmental management decisions, the practice has not reached its full potential. In this paper, limitations of the practice are described under 2 categories, namely inherent and contrived. Inherent limitations are constraints of nature that we need to be aware of as we design and interpret studies. Contrived limitations are impediments that have arisen in the practice through precedent or policy. The closing portion of this paper provides a series of short-term and long-term steps that could remove some of the limitations, especially the contrived ones, and improve the usefulness of risk assessments.
NATO Security through Science Series, 2006
This paper presents a current overview of the basic elements of environmental risk assessment within the basic four-step process of hazard identification, exposure assessment, toxicity assessment, and risk characterization. These general steps have been applied to assess both human and ecological risks from environmental exposures. Approaches used to identify hazards and exposures are being refined, including the use of optimized field sampling and more representative, rather than conservative, upper-bound estimates. In addition, toxicity data are being reviewed more rigorously as U.S. and European harmonization initiatives gain strength, and the classification of chemicals has become more qualitative to more flexibly accommodate new dose-response information as it is developed. Finally, more emphasis is being placed on noncancer end points, and human and ecological risks are being weighed against each other more explicitly at the risk characterization phase. Recent advances in risk-based decision making reflect the increased transparency of the overall process, with more explicit incorporation of multiple trade-offs. The end reklt is a more comprehensive life-cycle evaluation of the risks associated with environmental exposures at contaminated sites.
Cumulative risk assessment lessons learned: a review of case studies and issue papers
Chemosphere, 2015
Cumulative risk assessments (CRAs) examine potential risks posed by exposure to multiple and sometimes disparate environmental stressors. CRAs are more resource intensive than single chemical assessments, and pose additional challenges and sources of uncertainty. CRAs may examine the impact of several factors on risk, including exposure magnitude and timing, chemical mixture composition, as well as physical, biological, or psychosocial stressors. CRAs are meant to increase the relevance of risk assessments, providing decision makers with information based on real world exposure scenarios that improve the characterization of actual risks and hazards. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has evaluated a number of CRAs, performed by or commissioned for the Agency, to seek insight into CRA concepts, methods, and lessons learned. In this article, ten case studies and five issue papers on key CRA topics are examined and a set of lessons learned are identified for CRA implementation. T...
Complexity and Uncertainty in Human and Ecological Risk Assessment
2012
Multiple interacting stressors in the environment present increasingly complex risks to human health. Too often, however, the data required for traditional risk assessment are either lacking or unavailable at the necessary spatial or temporal scale. In addition, assessment practices and management policies need to move away from single factor approaches in order to accommodate the reality of complex chemical mixtures and environmental stressors. Recent literature suggests that a paradigm shift is under way. This points to a need for the development of new techniques both for rapid data collection and flexible risk assessment strategies that can adapt to make use of readily available data. This dissertation presents two
Ecological risk assessments to guide decision-making: Methodology matters
Environmental Science & Policy
Ecological risk assessment is often applied to guide the decision-making process that underpins ecosystem-based management and prioritisation of risk factors for management. Several studies have recently used ecological risk assessment approaches to identify risk factors of greatest concern, but rarely are the underlying methodological decisions discussed in terms of the effect that those decisions have on the outcome of the assessment and ultimately, how that affects prioritisation of risk factors for management. This study therefore evaluates the effect of methodological decisions involving (1) the choice and definition of risk factors, and (2) the calculation of risk scores, providing, where possible, recommendations on what should be the most appropriate methodologies. The definition of risk factors is often determined by the policy context and could result in the comparison of one broadly defined risk meta-factor (e.g. Food Production) with corresponding specific risk factors defined more narrowly (i.e. Oil and Gas production or Offshore Wind). Depending on the method to calculate risk this may result in a systematic bias prioritising any risk meta-factor. For the calculation of individual impact chain risk scores we compared weighted scores with ordinal scores, where the former allows more flexibility to represent the qualitative categories that determine risk and provided results better supported by scientific evidence. A consideration of different risk assessment applications in EBM showed there is no one-size-fits-all solution to this as these methodological decisions need to be considered in concert and the preferred methodology may depend on the context in which the risk assessment is applied. The outcome of the risk assessment should always be accompanied by an explicit consideration of these methodological issues and description of the resulting methodological choices.
A framework for ecological risk assessment at the EPA
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 1992
Ecological risk assessments evaluate the likelihood of adverse ecological effects caused by stressors related to human activities such as draining of wetlands or release of chemicals. The term stressor is used to describe any chemical, physical, or biological entity that can induce adverse effects on ecological components (i.e., individuals, populations, communities, or ecosystems). In this review article, a historical perspective on ecological risk assessment activities at the U S . Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is followed by a discussion of the EPA's "Framework Report," which describes the basic elements for conducting an ecological risk assessment. The "Framework Report" is neither a procedural guide nor a regulatory requirement within the EPA. Rather, it is intended to foster a consistent approach to ecological risk assessments within the Agency, identify key issues, and define terminology.
Why Has Ecological Risk Assessment Found Such Limited Application?
Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 2009
Recently I have been asking a fundamental question about a particular part of my research career. It might be that after so many years of research and teaching environmental science I am wondering if it was all worth it. The question is simple. Why is ecological risk assessment not a more fundamental tool in all aspects of environmental management? Is this failing because of its history, a scientific unsoundness, or some other feature? This essay is a partial examination of this question from my particular perspective. Risk assessment in the United States began as a decision-making process for contaminated sites, especially under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response and Compensation Act (CERCLA, also called Superfund) (NRC 1983). Suter (2008) has summarized the history of ecological risk assessment and its derivation from human health risk assessment processes. From its inception risk assessment has been a contaminant-centric process. This emphasis is understandable given the regulatory environment of the principal sponsor of the development of risk assessment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Superfund (CERCLA) and pesticide registration under Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The encyclopedic Ecological Risk Assessment by Suter (2007) is a book about the risk assessment of chemicals, reflecting the development of the process. However, the kinds of questions being asked by environmental managers now are much more diverse than mere chemical contamination. Over the last two years the Washington State Department of Natural Resources has been developing the Cherry Point Resource and Management Plan (WADNR 2009). Cherry Point is a region along the most northwest coast of Washington State and is the location of an iconic Pacific herring run, several industrial sites, and is considered an important marine resource. This plan has been conducted with the input of the stakeholders, including state and tribal governments, industries, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and Western Washington University. The list of sources and stressors includes: climate change, noise, shading from the piers, shoreline modification, recreation, invasives from ballast water, invasives from other sources, water quality, oil spills, effluent outfalls, and air quality. Of these items conventional ecological risk assessment has principally dealt with only the last four. A major piece of environmental legislation and regulation has been the national resource damage assessment (NRDA) segment of CERCLA managed by the U.S.