This course focuses on human health risk assessment and covers the following set of interrelated steps that are used in assessing environmental risks: hazard identification, dose-response, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. Current key topics in the evolution of risk assessment are covered, such as shifting emphasis from risk identification to risk characterization, from cancer effects to an inclusive focus on other diseases and deficits, and from dose-response to a greater emphasis on mechanisms and modes of action at the cellular and genetic level. The course also features discussions of cascading conservatism, bias towards synthetic over natural risks, and the difficulties of conducting epidemiological studies. The course will emphasize examples from the U.S. EPA, but some attention will also be paid to how other government agencies assess risks. (Also a course in the Environmental & Regulatory Policy track)
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
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