Perspectives for integrating human and environmental exposure assessments

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Toxicology
• Risk Assessment

Background:

• Integrated Risk Assessment (IRA) is defined as the mutual exploitation of Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA) and Human Health Risk Assessment (HRA).
• Integrating Environmental Exposure Assessment (EEA) and Human Exposure Assessment (HEA) is crucial for IRA, despite differing targets and timeframes.
• Shared environments and exposure pathways necessitate a more unified approach to exposure assessment for both humans and wildlife.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify perspectives and recommendations for harmonizing and extrapolating exposure assessment data, models, and methods between EEA and HEA.
• To support the development and promotion of the Integrated Risk Assessment (IRA) concept.
• To provide guidance on the application of IRA in regulatory decision-making for chemicals.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of outcomes from an Expert Workshop on Extrapolations in Integrated Exposure Assessment.
• Review of existing data, experimental approaches, and modeling tools for EEA and HEA.
• Focus on inter-species extrapolations and common chemical properties for fate modeling.

Main Results:

• Identified the need for better exploitation of existing data and tools to address scientific complexity and resource constraints in exposure assessment.
• Highlighted commonalities in exposure pathways and chemical fate modeling between EEA and HEA.
• Established a basis for recommendations to improve harmonization and extrapolation in integrated exposure assessment.

Conclusions:

• An integrated approach to EEA and HEA offers a potential solution to current challenges in risk assessment.
• Harmonized extrapolation methods can enhance the efficiency and coherence of risk characterization for humans and the environment.
• The recommendations can inform regulatory guidance for implementing IRA in chemical risk management.