Chemical analysis, distributed modelling and risk indices. Three fundamental pillars in Risk Assessment.
The Risk Assessment (RA) of pollutants from contaminated sites and landfills is a major environmental issue in Europe, due to the large number of sites and to the importance of groundwater protection. The high number of contaminants and the lack of knowledge of their environmental properties and their ecotoxicological and toxicological characteristics complicate the problem. Furthermore, this information about the chemicals has to be combined with the data relative to the territory and to the targets. We will describe the problems relative to each topic involved in the process, and we will propose an integrated methodology for coping with these problems, using state-of-the-art approaches in each part of the protocol. This methodology has been applied in several real cases.
Benfenati
Emilio
E
Department of Environmental Health Science, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Via Eritrea 63, Milano, Italy. benfenati@marionegri.it
Genah
Daniel
D
Verro
Roberto
R
Mazzatorta
Paolo
P
D001151:Arsenic / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D005060:Europe; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012987:Soil / Q000032:analysis; D013995:Time; D014872:Water Movements; D014881:Water Supply / Q000032:analysis
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D015386:Hazardous Substances; D012987:Soil; D001151:Arsenic