RISK ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMICALS

Risk assessment is an evolving process, based not only upon toxicology but also upon a broad background of knowledge in fields ranging from chemistry to physiology and molecular biology and from environmental t ransport processes to applied statistics. Risk assessment procedures m ust be continually updated to reflect advances in these basic sciences . This review addresses several areas of risk assessment that are rece iving heightened attention, including neurotoxicity, immunotoxicity, r eproductive and developmental toxicity, genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, and toxicokinetics and modeling. Risk assessors must work with the sc ientific community at large to incorporate advances in the basic scien ces into their extrapolations. A concerted attempt to better define th e variability and decrease the uncertainty of hazard estimates will re sult in more efficient protection of the public and the environment ag ainst toxic hazards.