Current Perspectives on Issues in Risk Assessment Methods

The Office of Research and Development (ORD) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was reorganized in 1995 to follow the risk assessment paradigm developed by the National Research Council. With the reorganization, a number of different research strategies and plans were developed on problem-driven topics (e.g., arsenic, particulate matter, and microbial pathogens/disinfectant byproducts) as well as on core research (e.g., ecological research, human health risk assessment research, and pollution prevention research). The human health risk assessments research strategy, which is currently under development, addresses a variety of issues which affect all human health risk assessments. These include mechanism of action, variation in response, aggregate risk, and effect on public health. While all of the issues that have been identified are important, the challenge to ORD is to identify which will have the greatest impact on improving risk assessment so that resources can be most strategically applied.