Risks

Risks (health impacts) are defined as a function of exposure and hazard characterisation at a chosen biological level (external or internal). Risk metrics are either based on the ratio hazard/exposure (e.g., MOE(T)) or exposure/hazard (e.g., HI, HQ, and RPI).

This module has as primary entities: Substances Effects Populations

Output of this module is used by: Single value risks

Calculation of risks

Risk (health impact) is quantified as exposure relative to hazard characterisation. Exposures or hazards can be single values or distributions, the risk metric is a distribution if at least one of the inputs is a distribution (if both are single values, see the module single value risks). Risk metrics are valid for a specific biological level (external or internal at a specific biological matrix).

Inputs used: Dietary exposures Internal exposures Hazard characterisations Human monitoring analysis Relative potency factors

Settings used

Settings and Tiers

Risks are expressed as distribution of risk characterisation ratios (hazard/exposure) or )exposure/hazard). The distribution is summarised by percentiles, and by the probability to exceed the specified threshold value (e.g. 1 or 100). The hazard vs. exposure plot compares the exposures and the hazard characterisation for individuals or individual-days in a population. Exposures, hazard characterisations and risks can be acute or chronic. The default unit for exposures and hazard characterisations is \(\mu g/kgBW/day\), but this can be changed by choosing non-default units for consumptions, concentrations and/or body weight.

By using probabilistic tiers for both exposure and hazard characterisation, the calculated risk distribution is equal to the Integrated hazard/exposure (IMOE) distribution, as described for the Integrated Probabilistic Risk Assessment (IPRA) approach in van der Voet and Slob (2007) and van der Voet et al. (2009).