Abstract
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines public health assessment as: “A systematic approach to collecting information from individuals that identifies risk factors, provides individualized feedback, and links the person with at least one intervention to promote health, sustain function and/or prevent disease” (CDC 2010). Within this general framework, a health risk assessment is defined as “An analysis that uses information about toxic substances at a site to estimate a theoretical level of risk for people who might be exposed to these substances”. Similarly, the National Academy of Sciences defines health risk assessment as a process in which information is analyzed to determine if an environmental hazard might cause harm to exposed persons (NRC 1983). In essence a health risk assessment study provides a comprehensive scientific estimate of risk to persons who could be exposed to hazardous materials that are present at a contaminated site. The environmental information that is necessary to conduct a health risk study is extensive and is obtained from scientific modeling studies and also from data from the site.
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Aral, M.M. (2010). Health Risk Analysis. In: Environmental Modeling and Health Risk Analysis (Acts/Risk). Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8608-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8608-2_8
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