ABSTRACT
The introduction of controls tends to reduce the potential for hazards to pose a risk to receptors, and therefore decrease the environmental risk at a site. Extending the scope of an environmental risk assessment to consider ecosystems is also likely to give rise to difficulties in identifying appropriate toxicity information for relevant flora and fauna. A good initial source of environmental risk information on a product or substance is the information required for the supply or transport of the agent, which primarily relates to health and safety concerns but is being continually extended to include specific environmental information. Two important factors must be considered when considering environmental risks; firstly environmental risks are strongly location dependent. The same operation in a different geographical location can represent very different risks. The second consideration is that zero-risk options are not usually available.
