Overview of risk assessment and public health assessment

This presentation will begin with the history of the risk assessment framework used by the US EPA, as well as other organizations and federal agencies. A brief overview of each “phase” in the risk assessment process will be given, with supplemental resources for the audience to further explore on their own time. This presentation will also discuss public health assessment, a type of assessment unique to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

Both processes identify the pollutants involved, determine a relationship between the dose of the pollutant and a specific biological response, identify the pathways by which the pollutant can expose individuals, and estimate the potential for adverse health effects to occur from exposure to the pollutant. However, public health assessments are always site-specific evaluations; employ environmental and biologic data; survey community health concerns; identify health effects data; and develop site-specific exposure scenarios.