The magnitude of compounding conservatisms in Superfund risk assessments
- Alceon Corp., Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Environ Corp., Princeton, NJ (United States)
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made two crucial risk management decisions in defining how much clean-up is enough at Superfund sites: first, the postremediation cancer risk goal should fall within the range of 10[sup [minus]1] to 10[sup [minus]6]; and second, the postremediation cancer risk goal should not be exceeded by more than 5-10% of the population potentially exposed. Unfortunately, the EPA has also issued guidance documents that distort these fundamental risk management criteria by specifying risk assessment methodologies and exposure factors that do not achieve the reasonable maximum exposure (RME) as defined by the EPA because they compound conservative assumptions beyond the RME concept. In this article, the authors express their view that the EPA has established risk management criteria based on acceptable risks, and has then issued risk assessment guidelines that lead to clean-up requirements that will achieve a far greater degree of health protection. 10 refs., 2 tabs.
- OSTI ID:
- 6435132
- Journal Information:
- Risk Analysis; (United States), Journal Name: Risk Analysis; (United States) Vol. 13:2; ISSN 0272-4332; ISSN RIANDF
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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