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Estimating and Predicting Exposure to Products from Emerging Technologies
Citation:
Vallero, D. Estimating and Predicting Exposure to Products from Emerging Technologies. Chapter 6, Synthetic Biology 2020: Frontiers in Risk Analysis and Governance. Springer, Heidelberg, Germany, , 107-142, (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27264-7_6
Impact/Purpose:
This chapter introduced exposure assessment approaches, identifying where conventional methods may fail, along with possible ways to augment them to address the large uncertainties in assessing and managing the risks posed by these technologies.
Description:
Risk is a common metric for public health and environmental decision-making. Scientifically, credible risk assessments underpin decisions regarding the potential safety of emerging technologies (National Academy of Sciences National Research Council 1983). Furthermore, individuals who may be exposed to the products of these technologies must understand the exposure and decide whether the potential risks are acceptable. Most environmental exposure decisions have low probability of substantial risk; for example, wastewater treatment plant design, construction of barriers to prevent migration of pollutants to drinking water wells, or selection of air pollution control equipment for particulate matter (PM). The difference between these decisions and those involving emerging technologies is that the latter have much greater uncertainty and must often rely on comparisons to conventional technologies.
