Exercise in Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA)

Terminology and Concepts

Question 1.

1.
Hazard: can be defined as the capacity of a substance to cause harm in human
or the environment under certain exposure conditions.
Risk: is the probability of suffering harm under certain exposure conditions to a
substance. The risk can be suffered by humans or the environment.
Exposure pathway: defines the different ways trhough humans can be exposed
to a harmful substance. The main exposure pathways for humans are:
inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact.
Receptor / endpoint: is the last place where the substance that is the object of
the risk assessment ends-up. It can either be humans or the environment.
Dose-response relationship: is the estimation of the relationship between the
level of exposure (dose) to a certain substance and the impact it has. The dose
can be different for one substance if it can produce diverse toxic effects. For
example, a long-term exposure to bencene in low concentration can produce
cancer, however in short-term exposure to high concentrations can be lethal.

2. What is the purpose of the hazard identification step? The purpose of the
hazard identification step is to identify if there is any harm that a substance can
cause in humans or the environment.

3. The differences between the exposure assessment and the effect assessment is
that the first one measure / predicts the exposure concentration that humans
and the environment compartments should expect from one substance.
Whereas the exposure assessment is focused on evaluating the relationship
between the previous exposure and the effect it could produce.

The risk characterization estimates the incidence and effects that is likely to
occur in humans or the environment compartments due to the expected
exposure to a substance. This exposure can be predicted or actual, however the
risk characterization integrates the:
1. Hazard identification.
2. Exposure assessment.
3. Effect assessment.

Question 2.

1. Hazard Identification.

The conceptual model for the exposure of the pathways is described in the
attached imagen. The sources of Cadmium are divided into stock of cadmium in
existing products, fertilizers and cigarettes. Whereas the first two sources end-
up in food production and therefore in the ingestion pathway, cigarettes (for
smoker people) is a direct source in the inhalation pathway. As the focus of the
risk assessment is in human health, the receptor is the human, even though the
substance will remain in the atmosphere, soils and the hydrosphere.

The nature of the effects that may occur from the hazards involves poor
function of kidneys and osteoporosis in adults, whereas for infants nervous
system damage may happen.
2. Exposure Assessment.

Levels of exposure for cadmium as a result of intake of food and smoking are
being calculated and lead to a:
 *+ -.
- Cadmium ingestion = 8,517 ∗ 10() /+ (12.3 456+78)∗455:
*+ -.
- 𝐶𝑎𝑑𝑚𝑖𝑢𝑚 𝑖𝑛ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 4 ∗ 10() /+ (12.3 456+78)∗455:
- 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑘𝑙𝑦 𝐶𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒:

*+ -.
§ 𝑁𝑜𝑛−smoker = 8,517 ∗ 10() /+ (12.3 456+78)
*+ -.
§ 𝑆𝑚𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑟 = 1,25 ∗ 10(R /+ (12.3 456+78)

More details of how the calculations were done can be found in a file attached
at the end of the document.

3. Risk Characterization

Risk ratio = Exposure dose / Threshold dose

*+ -.
Weekly threshold dose = 7 ∗ 10(R /+ (12.3 456+78)

§ Non-smoker Risk ratio = 0,12

§ Smoker Risk ratio = 0,18

The risk quotients are lower than 1 what means that the risk is controlled.

Questions:

1. Is there a risk to humans caused by cadmium? At the actual exposure

levels there is no risk to humans caused by cadmium since the weekly
intake of cadmium is inside the limits of the acceptable weekly intake
quantity.
2. What conclusions can be drawn about the risk for effects on humans
from exposure to cadmium? The main conclusion is that even though
the weekly intake is not high, the bioaccumulation of cadmium in the
body was not taken into account.