title: Uncertainties in human health risk assessment of environmental contaminants: A review and perspective.
abstract: Addressing uncertainties in human health risk assessment is a critical issue when evaluating the effects of contaminants on public health. A range of uncertainties exist through the source-to-outcome continuum, including exposure assessment, hazard and risk characterisation. While various strategies have been applied to characterising uncertainty, classical approaches largely rely on how to maximise the available resources. Expert judgement, defaults and tools for characterising quantitative uncertainty attempt to fill the gap between data and regulation requirements. The experiences of researching 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) illustrated uncertainty sources and how to maximise available information to determine uncertainties, and thereby provide an 'adequate' protection to contaminant exposure. As regulatory requirements and recurring issues increase, the assessment of complex scenarios involving a large number of chemicals requires more sophisticated tools. Recent advances in exposure and toxicology science provide a large data set for environmental contaminants and public health. In particular, biomonitoring information, in vitro data streams and computational toxicology are the crucial factors in the NexGen risk assessment, as well as uncertainties minimisation. Although in this review we cannot yet predict how the exposure science and modern toxicology will develop in the long-term, current techniques from emerging science can be integrated to improve decision-making.
authors.affiliation: The Faculty of Science and Information Technology, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia.
authors.forename: Zhaomin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: The Faculty of Science and Information Technology, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia.
authors.forename: Yanju
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: The Faculty of Science and Information Technology, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia.
authors.forename: Luchun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: The Faculty of Science and Information Technology, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia.
authors.forename: Dawit
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bekele
authors.affiliation: The Faculty of Science and Information Technology, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia; Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment, Mawson Lakes, SA 5095, Australia. Electronic address: ravi.naidu@newcastle.edu.au.
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Naidu
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D015386:Hazardous Substances / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D062489:Health Impact Assessment / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D000072317:Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D011634:Public Health; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D035501:Uncertainty; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D015386:Hazardous Substances; D000072317:Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins
keywords: Exposure; Hazard; Human health risk assessment; Modelling; Uncertainties