The Risk Analysis Process

The process of risk assessment and risk management is widely recognized in the United States for making policy decisions to control the risk associated with toxic chemical exposures. This two-step process, to first evaluate risk and then decide what, if anything, should be done to reduce exposures, was first adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1976 in its announcement of guidelines for assessing cancer risk (EPA, 1976; Albert et al., 1977). This approach was later endorsed by committees of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) as the most appropriate process for informed public policy decisions to protect public health from toxic chemical exposures (NAS, 1982, 1983). Other United States federal interagency committees reviewed the basis for cancer risk assessment and published background documents that are largely consistent with the earlier and much briefer statement of risk assessment guidance published by the EPA in 1976 (IRLG, 1979; OSTP, 1984). The EPA has recently published updates of its cancer risk assessment guidelines and guidelines for other health effects that take into account its decade of experience in assessing cancer risks for hundreds of chemicals (EPA, 1984a–d, 1985a, 1986a–e).