Overview of Risk Assessment and Risk 



Management 



The objective of risk assessment is to estimate the probabihty of 

 adverse health effects from exposure to a toxic agent. The elements of 

 the risk assessment process and their relationship to risk management 

 are shown in Figure 1. U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (1987) 

 provides a review of general policies and technical approaches of 

 federal agencies in assessing risks to human health associated with 

 exposure to chemicals . Background information on food safety evalua- 

 tion by Federal and state agencies is provided by U.S. Office of 

 Technology Assessment (1979) and Food Safety Council (1980, 1982). 

 Examples of approaches used by FDA to assess human health risks 

 from toxic chemical exposures are described in Cordle et al. ( 1978) and 

 Flamm and Winbush (1984). 



The following sections provide an overview of the steps in risk assess- 

 ment, the need for a risk assessment approach to evaluate human 

 health risks from chemically contaminated fisheries, and potential 

 appHcations of the results of fisheries risk assessment. The general 

 format for risk assessment and all definitions of terms used in this 

 report are consistent with those provided by National Research Coun- 

 cil (1983) and U.S. EPA (1986a-e, 1987a). 



A complete risk assessment includes the following steps: 



• Hazard identirication: Quahtative evaluation of the potential 

 for a substance to cause adverse health effects (e.g., birth 

 defects, cancer) in animals or in humans 



• Dose-response assessment: Quantitative estimation of the 

 relationship between the dose of a substance and the prob- 

 ability of an adverse health effect 



Major Steps in Risk 

 Assessment 



11 



