Human Exposure Assessment for Airborne Pollutants


Book Description

Most people in the United States spend far more time indoors than outdoors. Yet, many air pollution regulations and risk assessments focus on outdoor air. These often overlook contact with harmful contaminants that may be at their most dangerous concentrations indoors. A new book from the National Research Council explores the need for strategies to address indoor and outdoor exposures and examines the methods and tools available for finding out where and when significant exposures occur. The volume includes: A conceptual framework and common terminology that investigators from different disciplines can use to make more accurate assessments of human exposure to airborne contaminants. An update of important developments in assessing exposure to airborne contaminants: ambient air sampling and physical chemical measurements, biological markers, questionnaires, time-activity diaries, and modeling. A series of examples of how exposure assessments have been applied-properly and improperly-to public health issues and how the committee's suggested framework can be brought into practice. This volume will provide important insights to improve risk assessment, risk management, pollution control, and regulatory programs.




Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment


Book Description

The public depends on competent risk assessment from the federal government and the scientific community to grapple with the threat of pollution. When risk reports turn out to be overblownâ€"or when risks are overlookedâ€"public skepticism abounds. This comprehensive and readable book explores how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can improve its risk assessment practices, with a focus on implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. With a wealth of detailed information, pertinent examples, and revealing analysis, the volume explores the "default option" and other basic concepts. It offers two views of EPA operations: The first examines how EPA currently assesses exposure to hazardous air pollutants, evaluates the toxicity of a substance, and characterizes the risk to the public. The second, more holistic, view explores how EPA can improve in several critical areas of risk assessment by focusing on cross-cutting themes and incorporating more scientific judgment. This comprehensive volume will be important to the EPA and other agencies, risk managers, environmental advocates, scientists, faculty, students, and concerned individuals.




Air Pollution, the Automobile, and Public Health


Book Description

"The combination of scientific and institutional integrity represented by this book is unusual. It should be a model for future endeavors to help quantify environmental risk as a basis for good decisionmaking." â€"William D. Ruckelshaus, from the foreword. This volume, prepared under the auspices of the Health Effects Institute, an independent research organization created and funded jointly by the Environmental Protection Agency and the automobile industry, brings together experts on atmospheric exposure and on the biological effects of toxic substances to examine what is knownâ€"and not knownâ€"about the human health risks of automotive emissions.




Assessment of Exposure to Indoor Air Pollutants


Book Description

Most people spend most of their time indoors, and the poor quality of the indoor environment is a strong determinant of a variety of health problems. The principal way of preventing adverse health effects is to eliminate exposure to hazardous factors. But first, standardized methods of assessing exposure are necessary to assess the risk to health and to select optimal risk management actions. This book aims to facilitate the implementation of exposure assessment methods in public health practice.




Occupational Exposure Assessment for Air Contaminants


Book Description

Addressing occupational exposure assessment for air contaminants as a coherent body of knowledge, this is the first book to explore occupational air contaminant measurement and properties, human exposure assessment, design of exposure strategies, and the statistical interpretation of exposure measurements in one comprehensive source. The book covers both the technological aspects of measuring air contaminants and the occupational hygiene framework within which such measurements take place. The all-inclusive exploration of the major theories and practices of occupational exposure assessment for air contaminants make this an ideal textbook for graduate or upper-level undergraduate courses.







Exposure Analysis


Book Description

Written by experts, Exposure Analysis is the first complete resource in the emerging scientific discipline of exposure analysis. A comprehensive source on the environmental pollutants that affect human health, the book discusses human exposure through pathways including air, food, water, dermal absorption, and, for children, non-food ingesti




Exposure Assessment in Environmental Epidemiology


Book Description

This completely updated edition of Exposure Assessment in Environmental Epidemiology offers a practical introduction to exposure assessment methodologies in environmental epidemiologic studies. In addition to methods for traditional methods -- questionnaires, biomonitoring -- this new edition is expanded to include geographic information systems, modeling, personal sensoring, remote sensing, and OMICs technologies. In addition, each of these methods is contextualized within a recent epidemiology study, maximizing illustration for students and those new to these to these techniques. With clear writing and extensive illustration, this book will be useful to anyone interested in exposure assessment, regardless of background.




An SAB Report


Book Description




Residential Exposure Assessment


Book Description

Residential Exposure Assessment: A Source Book is the result of a multiyear effort known as the Residential Exposure Assessment Project (REAP) which was initiated by the Society for Risk Analysis and the International Society of Exposure Analysis. This textbook is the primary product of the REAP and it contains contributions from over 30 professionals from a variety of disciplines such as chemistry, biology, physics, engi neering, industrial hygiene, toxicology, pharmacology, and environmental law, reflecting the diverse knowledge and resources necessary to assess and manage potential exposures occurring in and around the home. Expert working groups were organized for each of the 13 chapters to address such issues as U. S. legislation relevant to products used in and around the residence, methods for measuring and modeling exposures across multiple pathways and routes, and distributional data available for key residential exposure factors. This volume is a compendium of information about predictive methods and tools, monitoring methods, data sources, and key variables that characterize exposures in the residential setting. It presents approaches for doing exposure assessments in and around all types of residences. The purpose of the Source Book is to provide a resource for use in educational programs and for "practitioners" of residential exposure assessment. Accordingly, this book is intended for risk assessors, exposure assessors, students, initi ates new to the concept of risk assessment, industrial hygienists assessing health hazards in the home, engineers, and monitoring specialists.