ABSTRACT
Is there general agreement on the nation’s environmental hazard priorities? Moreover, what criteria should be used to prioritize environmental hazards? How do human health risks of hazardous waste compare with those of other environmental hazards? The EPA and some states, among others, have used comparative risk assessment to prioritize individual environmental hazards. Legislators have expressed interest in using risk comparisons to help shape legislative and budget decisions. This chapter summarizes approaches to comparative risk assessment and synthesizes a set of national environmental hazard priorities, using data from 15 states.
