Perspectives on United States Methods of Human and Environmental Risk Assessment

Abstract

The intention of this paper is to highlight the parts of United States risk assessment methods that are valuable worldwide, and to point out how the methods can be misused at great and unnecessary cost. Industries in many countries are essential to the economy, but they operate on profit margins that make it difficult to spend money on protecting the environment. Blind use of US risk assessment methods can result in wasting money, but careful use can reduce the cost of identifying the real sources of health effects.