The Identification of Thresholds of Acceptability and Danger: The Biological Route

Tarazona, José V.

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-60682-3_12

Cited by 16 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 12 publications

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“…If these ratios suggest that risk exceeds a level of concern, a risk refinement using higher tier approaches becomes necessary. A high level of conservatism is required to cover the extrapolation uncertainty in these initial point estimates (7), but it should be made clear that this is just a screening level approach, which can only be used to focus on the most important contaminants and emission sources. An HQ > 1 (or RCR > 1) does not necessarily indicate real risk, but that another more complex assessment must follow to reduce uncertainty to an acceptable level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Probabilistic Ecological Risk Assessment of 1,2,4-Trichlorobenzene at a Former Industrial Contaminated Site

Zolezzi¹,

Cattaneo²,

Tarazona³

2005

Environ. Sci. Technol.

101

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Measured concentrations of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene (1,2,4-TCB) in soil and groundwater detected in an industrial contaminated site were used to test several probabilistic options for refining site-specific ecological risks assessment, ranging from comparison of single effects and exposure values through comparison of probabilistic distributions for exposure and effects to the use of distribution based quotients (DBQs) obtained through Monte Carlo simulations. The results of the deterministic approach, which suggest that risk exceeds a level of concern for soil organisms, were influenced mainly by the presence of hot spots reaching concentrations able to affect acutely a large proportion of species, while the large majority of the area presents 1,2,4-TCB concentrations below those reported as toxic. Ground-(pore)water concentrations were compared with aquatic ecotoxicity data in order to obtain an estimation of the potential risk for aquifers and streams in the adjacent area as well as for soil-dwelling organisms exposed via pore water. In this case, the risk is distributed over a large proportion of the site, while the local risk of hot spots was low, showing that risk characterization based exclusively on soil concentrations might be insufficient.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%