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APPROACHES FOR INCORPORATING NON-CHEMICAL STRESSORS INTO CUMULATIVE RISK ASSESSMENTS
Citation:
Rider, C. AND J. E. SIMMONS. APPROACHES FOR INCORPORATING NON-CHEMICAL STRESSORS INTO CUMULATIVE RISK ASSESSMENTS. Presented at Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, March 06 - 10, 2011.
Impact/Purpose:
Cummulative Risk Workshop at SOT; cumulative risk is expected to be a part of the new Sustainable Communities ITR)
Description:
Over the past twenty years, the risk assessment paradigm has gradually shifted from an individual chemical approach to a community-based model. Inherent in community-based risk assessment is consideration of the totality of stressors affecting a defined population including both the complex milieu of chemicals to which the community is exposed and the unique vulnerabilities associated with the community. Non-chemical stressors make up an important subset of potential community vulnerabilities that have the potential to either directly affect the health of individuals or modulate their response to chemical exposures. Non-chemical stressors can be associated with the quality of the environment (e.g. housing, sanitation), resources (e.g. schools, accessto medical care), and social factors (e.g. crime). Strides have been made in developing and refining methods for conducting cumulative risk assessments for multiple chemicals, but integrating non-chemical stressors into these risk assessments represents a new challenge. Sorting through the complexities associated with identifying and quantifying non-chemical stressors and incorporating them into predictive models of cumulative risk will require a concerted interdisciplinary effort. Disciplines such as toxicology, sociology, psychology, epidemiology and statistics, could contribute to this effort. Key areas for discussion are: identifying assumptions involved in the treatment of non-chemical stressors, pitfalls and lessons learned from cumulative risk assessments of chemicals, prioritization strategies for non-chemical stressors, and identification of research needs to inform the process. The panel of experts at this workshop will present different facets to be considered in the incorporation of non-chemical stressors into cumulative risk assessments. Presenters will address the regulatory perspective on non-chemical stressors, non-chemical stressor "exposure" considerations, and methods from cumulative chemical risk assessments that can be applied to non-chemical stressors. Examples of scenarios where chemical and non-chemical stressors are likely to interact will be discussed throughout. (This abstract does not reflect EPA policy).