The Risk Assessment Paradigm as a Blueprint for Environmental Research
During its 20-year history, the risk assessment paradigm found in the National Research Council's (NRC's) report Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process, known as the "Red Book," has served a variety of purposes for organizations in the public and the private sector. Familiar examples include risk assessments for specific chemicals, generic guidelines and concept papers, and tutorials for science professionals as well as the general public. In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) applied the paradigm to reconfigure and revitalize its environmental research program. In a two-phase, multi-year process, the EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) undertook a massive reorganization that included restructuring twelve disparate laboratories into a unified five-unit system aligned with the risk assessment/risk management paradigm. As the reorganization took shape, the laboratories devised a paradigm-oriented approach to prioritizing environmental research: ORD evaluated proposed research projects in terms of relative data needs in each of the analytical fields in the NRC paradigm--hazard identification, exposure, risk characterization, and risk management. The resulting research program established scheduling and budgeting priorities that were consistent with EPA's priorities and aligned with the risk assessment/risk management paradigm. Non-science factors such as congressional mandates, programmatic priorities, and feasibility considerations also have critical roles in the overall prioritization process. risk assessmentenvironmental researchRed BookNational Research Councilrisk managementresearch priorities.
Keywords: National Research Council; Red Book; environmental research; research priorities; risk assessment; risk management
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Adjunct Faculty, Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA 2: Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Publication date: 01 September 2003
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