title: Ecological risk assessment issues identified during the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's examination of risk assessment practices.
abstract: Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency examined its current risk-assessment principles and practices. As part of the examination, aspects of ecological risk-assessment practices were reviewed. Several issues related to ecological risk assessment were identified, including the use of organism-level versus population-level attributes to characterize risk, the possible opportunities associated with the increased use of probabilistic approaches for ecological risk assessment, and the notion of conservatism in estimating risks. The agency examination provides an understanding of current practices and is intended to begin a dialogue in which the risk assessment community can engage in addressing the identified issues to improve and enhance ecological risk assessment.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of the Science Advisor, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460, USA. dearfield.kerry@epa.gov
authors.forename: Kerry L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Dearfield
authors.forename: Edward S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kravitz
authors.forename: Randy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wentsel
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Slimak
authors.forename: William H
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Farland
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gilman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004777:Environment; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants