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EXPOSURE DOMAINS: ROLE OF TIMING, PATTERN AND MAGNITUDE OF EXPOSURE ON HEALTH RISKS
Citation:
Vandenberg, J J. AND W K. Boyes. EXPOSURE DOMAINS: ROLE OF TIMING, PATTERN AND MAGNITUDE OF EXPOSURE ON HEALTH RISKS. Presented at Joint World Health Workshop, Bonn, Germany, October 14-15, 2002.
Description:
Environmental health risk assessment may be broadly separated into assessment of risks from exposures to agents affecting health endpoints for which it may be presumed there is no dose threshold, and to agents affecting endpoints that more likely have a dose threshold. For health endpoints with no dose threshold, such as carcinogens, it may be assumed that by reducing total exposure the human health risks will be reduced accordingly. Further, for such agents, the timing and pattern of exposure receive less attention than consideration of total cumulative (often lifetime or long-term) exposure. Some have assumed that if cancer risks are reduced to acceptable levels then the risks of other endpoints might be sufficiently reduced as well. Cancer has served as a major point of regulatory attention, at least in the United States for hazardous air pollutants, as illustrated by reference to specific cancer risk levels as decision criteria for regulatory action in the 1990 Amendments to the U.S. Clean Air Act.