Open AccessSome considerations concerning multimedia-multipollutant risk assessment methodology: use of epidemiologic data for non-cancer risk assessment in Russia.
Author(s) -
Larisa I. Privalova,
Karen E. Wilcock,
Boris A. Katsnelson,
Susan E. Keane,
Kathleen Cunningham,
С В Кузьмин,
Sergey A. Voronin,
Б И Никонов,
Vladimir B. Gurvich
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
environmental health perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.257
H-Index - 282
eISSN - 1552-9924
pISSN - 0091-6765
DOI - 10.1289/ehp.011097
Subject(s) - environmental health , risk assessment , health risk assessment , pollutant , environmental science , air pollution , exposure assessment , population , arsenic , environmental epidemiology , environmental chemistry , environmental protection , computer science , health risk , chemistry , medicine , computer security , organic chemistry
The highly industrialized small town of Verkhnyaya Pyshma (in the Urals region of Russia) was chosen as the site of a multimedia-multipollutant risk assessment using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency methodology. The assessment was based on routine environmental pollution monitoring data for ambient air, soils, drinking water, and food, and the international environmental epidemiology literature. Using an a priori set of the preliminary health-based criteria, we selected nine pollutants for risk assessment: total suspended particles (TSP), sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), ammonia arsenic, copper, cadmium, and lead. We used dose-response functions derived from epidemiologic studies to assess individual and population risks for TSP, SO2, NO2, As, Cd, and Pb. We assessed both cancer (for BaP, As, and Cd) and non-cancer (for all the chosen pollutants but BaP) responses, but in this paper we discuss only the assessments of noncarcinogenic risks due to TSP, SO2, NO2, Pb, and Cd as examples of how the quantitative estimates of health effects can be produced by using a risk function approach. We also schematically present a modified conceptual model of multimedia-multipollutant risk assessment taking into account the experience gained with this study.