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REPEAT THE QUESTION PLEASE!

What is the difference between a Risk Assessment and a Health Assessment?

The main difference is their focus. The primary focus of a Health Assessment is the protection of, and the implication of a spill or release on public health. A Risk Assessment on the other hand has a focus on selecting the best remedial measure to protect human health from a spill or release.

Adapted from ATSDR Public Health Assessment Manual

 

 

THINK ABOUT
IT!

resolve
Never
To do anything,
That
You wouldn’t do
If it were
The Last
Hour of your
Life.

Jonathan Edwards

 
EXPOSURE ASSESSMENTS

Who hasn’t been annoyed by a child on a long trip asking “Are we there yet?” Those four simple words can cause a ten-minute trip to seem like an eternity. Instead of just responding with “no”, suppose the response was one that included a series of questions to help the curious understand their situation:


Am I still driving?
Is the car still running?
Are you still in your seat buckled up?

When the answer is no to all these questions, then we have arrived. What you have done is given the disenchanted rider an opportunity to assess the situation and provided them with tools to answer their own question.

It has been said “one cannot determine where to go if they have no idea where they are”. Amusement park maps or mall locator maps usually have a large arrow stating: “You are here”. An incredibly helpful tool when you are totally lost.

All of this can be summed up in one word “Assessment.” When a chemical has (or, is believed to be), spilled, or released “Have I been exposed” is a question that cannot easily be satisfied with the answer “No”. Help the potentially exposed individual understand where they are by assessing the following:

  1. The potential chemicals of concern (ID of hazard)
  2. Pathways of exposure (Characterize Risk)
  3. Methods to reduce or eliminate exposure (Control of Risk)

There are generally three types of exposure assessment:

  1. Chemicals of concern known source needs to be determined.
  2. Source is known chemicals of concern need to be determined.
  3. Chemicals of concern and source known, health risk needs to be determined.

Sometimes all it takes is a few choice questions that your passengers can answer for themselves to help them relax and enjoy the ride along the exposure assessment highway.
DID YOU KNOW?

The term Idiopathic Environmental Intolerances (IEI) was recommended to replace Multiple Chemical Sensitivity in 1996 in a workshop organized by the World Health Organization. Prior to this, individuals with complaints of multiple symptoms attributed to numerous and varied environmental chemical exposures were referred to as having one of the following: Environmental Illness, 20th Century disease, Chemical Hypersensitivity Syndrome, Total Allergy Syndrome, or Cerebral Allergy.