Related Activities (Text Version)

• Clicking Planning will show and play the text:

Before the risk assessment starts, risk assessors, risk managers, and other interested parties work together to determine:

• Management goals — A management goal is a general statement of the desired outcome. Management objectives are more specific statements of the desired outcome.
• The purpose of the risk assessment — Risk assessments usually predict the effects of stressors, to answer questions such as whether and how much to clean up a Superfund site, whether to register a new pesticide, or how much of a substance may be emitted into the air or water. But risk assessment may also be applied retroactively, for example to identify what is reducing wildlife populations, to prioritize and address environmental threats in a community, or to evaluate an industry.
• The resources available to conduct the work — The time, money, expertise, data and tools available to do the job.

Risk managers charged with protecting the environment can identify the information they need to develop their decision, and risk assessors can ensure that science is effectively used to address ecological concerns. Together, they can evaluate whether a risk assessment can address identified problems. It's important to note that planning is a separate activity from risk assessment. This distinction helps ensure that political and social issues, while helping to define the objectives for the risk assessment, do not introduce undue bias.

• Clicking As Needed: Get Data, Iterate, Monitor will show and play the text:

Data acquisition, iteration, and monitoring are important parts of ecological risk assessment. Monitoring data provide important input to all phases of a risk assessment. Something learned during analysis or risk characterization may lead to a reevaluation of problem formulation or to new data collection and analysis. A dotted line connects monitoring and risk management because collecting and monitoring results can be necessary to strengthen risk management decisions or verify that the decision was the correct one, but it isn't always required.

• Clicking Communicate Results will show and play the text:
  

After risk characterization is complete, risk assessors communicate results to risk managers, who, in turn, work with outreach staff to share results with interested parties.

• Clicking Risk Management will show and play the text:

Risk managers use risk assessment results, along with other factors (e.g., human health, engineering, sociological, political, economic, or legal concerns), in making risk management decisions and as a basis for communicating risks to interested parties and the general public.

It is important to understand the difference between risk assessment and risk management. Risk assessors evaluate the likelihood of adverse effects resulting from exposure to stressors. Risk management involves selecting a course of action in response to an identified risk. Risk managers base their decisions on risk assessment results as well as other factors (e.g., legal mandates and political, social, and economic considerations). In some cases, reducing risks to the lowest level may be too expensive, technically infeasible, or unacceptable to the community. So, although ecological risk assessments provide critical information to risk managers, they are only part of the environmental decision-making process.