ABSTRACT
Environmental health risks are managed by procedures based on the availability of a common set of data for chemical substances, physical factors such as noise and radiation, and other environmental hazards. On one level, the risks due to known exposure to many toxic substances are controlled via the setting of no (adverse) effect levels (air and water quality guidelines, occupational exposure limits, etc.), together with the establishment of appropriate monitoring schemes. As long as these administrative levels are not exceeded, it is assumed that there are no adverse health effects. The monitoring performed under such administrative mandates provides a rough description of the environmental base-line. As long as environmental base-lines of potentially toxic substances do not show upward trends it is assumed that environmental management is successful.
