Contemporary challenges and ways to improve health risk assessment and management

Abstract

We analyzed basic trends in improving risk assessment and management in Russia taking into account international experience; these trends arise from needs occurring in contemporary hygienic science and necessity to provide stronger resistance against new threats to population health. We substantiated specific tasks in development of health risk analysis mythology basing on preconditions for finding solutions to them in Russia; we also determined practical issues in its implementation that are the most vital and need solutions in the nearest future in order to eliminate adverse impacts on the environment and population health. The primary results are creation of a long-term strategy for the development of health risk analysis principles that takes into account the latest scientific data and is aimed at solving the following methodological and practical tasks: implementation of a systemic approach in estimating carcinogenic / non-carcinogenic risks; development of a unified approach to accomplishing toxicological «dose – response» examinations and interpreting their results which will take into account background morbidity and background dose burdens and determine susceptible population groups and behavioral models; threshold levels obtained via determining «benchmark» concentrations taking spontaneous background into account in order to determine new RfD and RfC and revise existing ones; use of micronvironmental approach in exposure estimation; use of risk assessment methodology in BAT parameters implementation for providing control over health safety after new approaches aimed at reducing emissions have been implemented in environmental protection. The necessity to improve approaches to health risk assessment and management and tasks solved within the process have been taken into account when the Branch scientific research program for 2021–2025 was developed by Rospotrebnadzor.