ABSTRACT
Environmental Protection Agency is increasingly weighing the merits of baseline risk assessments based on individual exposures vs. broader population-based risk analysis. There are two types of risk assessments: A health assessment and an ecological assessment. Risk assessment draws heavily upon the science of toxicology. Toxicology is the study of how toxic substances affect organisms. Computerized models are used to assess the potential doses and associated risks to the public from all significant exposure scenarios, media, and exposure pathways. Emergency response analysis is a decision-making tool to identify potential emergencies facing a community with respect to accidental explosions or releases of compounds. ARCHIE is the recommended model in several states as part of the emergency response analysis requirement in permit requests. The chapter summarizes the relative contribution that each substance makes toward the total reasonable maximum exposure cancer risk and hazard index for each exposure medium.
