A quality process for chemical product risk assessment

One cannot manage a health or environmental risk of unknown dimension. Thus, the rational and cost-effective control of any risk lies first in its reasoned assessment. The assessment of risk is a scientific endeavor which embodies the intellectual use of information to reach a determination or assignment of an ascribed level of danger. It is, however, a decision process and approach whose details are substantially value laden. As such, it is potentially subject to a myriad of subjective interpretations from individuals with special interests and perspectives. Given this nature, it is incumbent upon those responsible for risk assessment in any organization to formulate a broad-based scientific consensus regarding the principals of quality assurance for the risk assessment process in their organization. This paper attempts to outline a rational and prudent consensus-based system for the quality assurance of risk assessment concerned with the danger to human health and the environment posed by the use of chemical products. We present it as a model that we hope could be accepted and implemented.