[The occupational medicine physician and risk evaluation: between technical arguments and regulative obligations]

Risk assessment (the characterization of potential adverse health effects of human exposure to environmental hazards) has been used by FDA and EPA for at least 30 yr, and many regulations currently rely on this procedure in USA and other european countries. RA method has been adopted for determinating of the exposure standards for relevant chemical and physical hazards. RA application shall become an important practice in Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene, also in view of specific international and national regulations and recommendations. In this paper are discussed the main theoretical aspects of RA procedure in Occupational Health activities. Emphasis is given to the role of the Occupational Medicine Physician, who have a formal training and experience in toxicology epidemiology and industrial hygiene as well as in human physiology and clinical medicine. For these reasons the Occupational Medicine Physicians are in a unique position not only to give specific contributions in some steps of RA (mainly in risk identification and in risk characterization) but also to bridge the gaps between the various technical figures involved in the RA procedure and therefore to guarantee the adoption of correct and accurate preventive measures.