Risk Assessment of Chemicals

This volume contains the basic background information on sources and emissions, distribution and fate processes, toxicology and ecotoxicology and estimation methodologies. It puts basic principles and methodologies for hazard and risk assessment of chemicals in their legislative context.

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The management of the risks associated with chemicals is an international challenge: it gained a prominent place on Agenda 21 of the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Successful management must be based on the development and harmonization of risk assessment methods. This book contains the basic background information on sources and emissions, distribution and fate processes, toxicology and ecotoxicology and estimation methodologies. It puts basic principles and methodologies for hazard and risk assessment of chemicals in their legislative context. The book supports the Uniform System for the Evaluation of Substances (USES), a computerised risk assessment system. The book contains essential information for students of the environmental sciences and for those professionally involved in the rapidly developing field of risk assessment and management of chemicals.