The book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the most modern concepts and tools needed to perform prospective and retrospective ecological risk assessments of environmental stressors, and will therefore be useful for students, teachers, scientists, regulators, and professionals in environmental consulting. Experimental methods and predictive theoretical approaches are described to evaluate and estimate the exposure of ecosystems to environmental stressors and to investigate their effects on different hierarchical levels of ecological organization (individuals, populations, communities, ecosystems). Specific sections are dedicated to the persistence and bioavailability of contaminants, bioaccumulation models, and the mechanisms of global pollution. Risk assessment procedures for the most relevant classes of traditional and emerging stressors, including physical agents, are described in detail in specific sections. Finally, regulatory instruments and public perception of risk are discussed.

Love Canal. Exxon Valdez. Times Beach. Sacramento River Spill. Amoco Cadiz. Seveso. Every area of the world has been affected by improper waste disposal and chemical spills. Common hazardous waste sites include abandoned warehouses, manufacturing facilities, processing plants, and landfills. These sites poison the land and contaminate groundwater and drinking water. A sequel to the bestselling Ecological Risk Assessment, Ecological Risk Assessment for Contaminated Sites focuses on how to perform ecological risk assessments for Superfund sites and locations contaminated by improper disposal of wastes, or chemical spills. It integrates the authors' extensive experience in assessing ecological risks at U.S. government sites with techniques and examples from assessments performed by others. Conducting an ecological risk assessment on a contaminated site provides the information needed to make decisions concerning site remediation. The first rule of good risk assessment is "don't do anything stupid". With the practical preparation you get from Ecological Risk Assessment for Contaminated Sites you won't.

Understand the fundamentals of human risk assessment with this introduction and reference Human risk assessments are a precondition for virtually all industrial action or environmental regulation, all the more essential in a world where chemical and environmental hazards are becoming more abundant. These documents catalog potential environmental, toxicological, ecological, or other harms resulting from a particular hazard, from chemical spills to construction projects to dangerous workplaces. They turn on a number of variables, of which the most significant is the degree of human exposure to the hazardous agent or process. Human and Ecological Risk Assessment combines the virtues of a textbook and reference work to introduce and analyze these vital documents. Beginning with the foundational theory of human health risk assessment, it then supplies case studies and detailed analysis illustrating the practice of producing risk assessment documents. Fully updated and authored by leading authorities in the field, the result is an indispensable work. Readers of the second edition of Human and Ecological Risk Assessment will also find: Over 40 entirely new case studies reflecting the latest in risk assessment practice Detailed discussion of hazards including air emissions, contaminated food and soil, hazardous waste sites, and many more Case studies from multiple countries to reflect diverse international standards Human and Ecological Risk Assessment is ideal for professionals and advanced graduate students in toxicology, industrial hygiene, occupational medicine, environmental science, and all related subjects.

Provides scientific & technical information that scientists can use along with other materials to develop ecological risk assessment guidance. Highlights important principles & approaches relevant to the ecological risk assessment framework that scientists should consider in preparing guidelines. Covers: biological stressors, ecological recovery, exposures characteristics, & much more. Figures & tables.

The present work is a continuation of the work initiated in Autumn 1991, which resulted in the book, published by Birkhauser Verlag in 1994, entitled: Methods for Risk Assessment of Transgenic Plants. I. Competition, Establishment and Ecosystem Effects. Already when the work on volume 1 started, it was obvious to the authors, that not only the physical establishment of a transgenic plant outside the cultivated area was important for risk assessment, but also the possible gene-transfer from transgenic plants to other plants had to be considered. It was then decided to write a second volume on test methods, as a complement to the first, covering the main topics: Pollination, gene-transfer and population impacts. The main user groups for this volume are scientists and students working with plant population genetics and risk assessment and administrators with responsibility for legislation of transgenic plants. In order to cover such a broad range of topics, specialist knowledge was required. Therefore, colleagues in Denmark and Switzerland, working in these fields in relation to the concerns of using transgenic plants, were asked to participate. The result was a Danish-Swiss cooperation. A list of contributors to the book and their addresses is shown on p. VII. Financial support, which made the work possible, was given by: The National Environmental Research Institute, Denmark, the Federal Office of Environment, Forest and Landscape, Switzerland, the National Forest and Nature Agency, Denmark, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency and the European Commission, DC XI.

Considerable experience with radioecological and related ecological research on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems has been achieved, especially after the Chernobyl accident. The combined effects of the radiation, chemical and biological factors, after a contamination of the environment and during its remediation have shown an interactive complexity that highlights the need for equidosimetrical evaluations of the influence of the various stressors and the need for their ecological normalization. In radioecology and radiation protection, methods of radiation dosimetry are key for dose assessment. It is therefore highly desirable to develop a clear theoretical approach as well as a practical method of equidosimetry that would allow for an ecological normalization of the different stressors in unified uniform units, especially for comparison purposes.

The decline of many individual and wild fish stocks has commanded an increase in aquaculture production to meet the protein demands of a growing population. Alongside selective breeding schemes and expanding facilities, transgenic methods have received increasing attention as a potential factor in meeting these demands. With a focus on developing countries, this third text in the series provides detailed information on environmental biosafety policy and regulation and presents methodologies for assessing ecological risks associated with transgenic fish --Publisher website, http://www.cabi.org/bk_BookDisplay.asp?PID=2054, viewed 6 December, 2007.

In recent years many developments have taken place in promote co-operation between governments and other the field of risk assessment of chemicals. Many reports parties involved in chemical safety and to provide policy have been published by national authorities, industries guidance with emphasis on regional and subregional co and scientific researchers as well as by international bod operation. The Inter-Organization Programme for the ies such as the European Union, the Organization of Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) was estab Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and lished in 1995 and provides a mechanism for the six par the joint International Programme on Chemical Safety ticipating organizations (UNEP, ILO, FAO, UNIDO,WHO (IPCS) of the World Health Organization (WHO), the and OECD) to better co-ordinate policies and activities in International Labour Organization (lLO), and the United the field of chemical risk management. Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The present book is an introduction to risk assessment of The development and international harmonization of risk chemicals. It contains basic background information on assessment methods is an important challenge. In sources, emissions, distribution and fate processes for Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on exposure estimation. It includes dose-effects estimation Environment and Development (UNCED), chapter 19 is for both human health related toxicology and ecotoxicol entirely devoted to the management of chemicals. For ogy as well as information on estimation methodologies. one of its recommendations, i. e.