Unique Risk Communication Challenges Posed by Estimating Human Health Risks for Diesel Exhaust

摘要

In response to a call from Congress to improve the quality and objectivity of the science behind regulatory decisions, the National Research Council (NRC) developed the seminal risk assessment guidelines, "Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process". The committee that wrote this 1983 NRC report defined risk assessment as a now well-known, four-step process including: 1) hazard identification; 2) exposure assessment; 3) dose-response assessment; and 4) risk characterization. Importantly, risk characterization was defined as having two integral components; estimation of risk and characterization of uncertainty. The principle that the objective process of risk assessment should be kept separate from the normative process of risk management was also presented in this foundational document.