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Risk Assessment/Risk Management

1. Risk is the probability of undesirable effects (or health outcomes) arising from exposure to a hazard.
2. Risk assessment has several different meanings.
3. 1. Risk assessment, in regulatory terms, refers to the use of available information to evaluate and estimate exposure to a substance and the resulting adverse health effects. Mathematical models are used to convert biological data (epidemiological and toxicological) into regulatory action.
   2. Risk assessment includes the following four steps:
   3. 1. Hazard identification relies on toxicological and epidemiological studies of the potential of a substance to cause harm.
      2. Dose-response evaluation measures whether the harm increases with increasing doses of the substance.
      3. Exposure assessment involves measurement of the amount of the chemical or other harmful substance to which a population is exposed with a goal of estimating dose.
      4. Risk characterization involves estimating the public health or environmental impact or problem.
   4. Risk assessment, in public health terms, has a much broader definition and includes individual and community level assessment. An assessment of a community's resources, including their cohesiveness and leadership, are all part of any nursing risk assessment.
4. Risk management is the process of evaluating alternative strategies for reducing risk and prioritizing or selecting among them.
5. 1. Risk management strategies often involve policy development.
   2. 1. Policy development may include regulatory, legislative, and/or voluntary options and may be targeted at the local, state, national or international level.  Click here for more information on regulations. 
   3. Environmental engineering is a critical tool in risk management. Engineering strategies to control exposure to environmental hazards are similar to the industrial hygiene "hierarchy of controls" and include the following:
   4. 1. Reduction of pollution at its source (source reduction)
      2. Waste minimization
      3. Reuse, recycling
      4. Emissions control
      5. Waste cleanup
   5. Risk management strategies should always include education of all involved parties regarding the nature of the risk and the costs and benefits of proposed risk management strategies.
   6. Coalition building and community action are vehicles to successful risk management.
   7. Legal remedies may be used to manage risk in combination with the above strategies.
   8. Community members should always be "at the table" in decision making around risk management.
6. Precautionary principal refers to the position that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. American Public Health Association Precautionary Principle and Children’s Healthy policy (2000).