Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment

As the crises associated with e. coli and mad cow disease demonstrate, human exposure to infectious microorganisms in food, water, and other sources is a matter of increasing concern. So is the political drive to require quantitative risk assessment in setting priorities for environmental policy.

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The first complete guide to the quantitative assessment of risks to humans posed by infectious agents in all environmental media. Recent highly-publicized infectious disease outbreaks in the United States and abroad have engendered mounting political pressure to require the use of quantitative techniques in the assessment of the risks of human exposure to an array of microorganisms. While traditional indicator methods for pathogen assessment and control have always left much to be desired, it is only with the advent of modern microbial methods that it is now possible to establish rigorous testing protocols for infectious agents comparable to those in place for chemical agents and other contaminants. A book whose time has come, Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment equips environmental and public health professionals with the knowledge and skills they need to comply with the rapidly growing demand for quantitative risk testing of infectious agents.
Authored by an interdisciplinary team of experts from the fields of environmental engineering, marine science, and soil and water science, this is the first comprehensive guide to state-of-the-art quantitative microbial risk assessment methods. It provides you with: Exhaustive coverage of potential infectious agents and their modes of transmission. Systematic presentations of quantitative risk, hazard, and exposure assessment techniques. Numerous worked examples throughout the book. Fascinating case studies illustrating the application of quantitative methods to various situations. Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment is an important working resource for professionals in the fields of environmental health, environmental engineering, public health, and microbiology. It is also an excellent graduate-level text for students of those disciplines.