The perils and promise of modern risk assessment: the example of trichloroethylene

This article summarizes some of the major scientific shortcomings identified by reviewers of the draft "Trichloroethylene Health Risk Assessment: Synthesis and Characterization" (TCE HRA) in the context of current US Environmental Protection Agency risk assessment guidance and the Data Quality Act guidelines. Our purpose is not to further criticize the draft HRA but to highlight specific areas for improvement and suggest specific ameliorative actions that we believe would improve the scientific credibility (quality) of the final document. This exercise is expected to be applicable beyond the specific case of TCE, because the draft HRA surely exemplifies many of the new challenges being posed to risk assessment in general by the ever-increasing sophistication of modern science.