Environmental Risk Assessment (Part 1: Assessing Risks of Chemicals in the Environment)
Fee: | None |
Length: | 45 minutes |
Description: | This module focuses on assessing the probability that a person or community will become ill if they are exposed to a toxic chemical in the air, water, soil, or food. |
This training has been inactivated. Only users who have completed this training may access it to reprint a certificate of completion. Any users who have not completed the training cannot begin OR resume the training. Please check the training catalog to find other trainings on this topic.

Learning Objectives
- Define environmental risk assessment
- Explain the purposes of risk assessment in public health
- Describe the four steps in risk assessment
- Define reference dose and hazard quotient
- Determine whether a given chemical in the environment poses health risks
Training Personnel
Author: | Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health |
Narrator: | Kasey Decosimo, MPH |
NCIPH Reviewers: | Meredith Davis, MPH Kasey Decosimo, MPH |
The author(s) and reviewer(s) of this training have no personal financial relationships with commercial interests relevant to this presentation to disclose. Author, narrator, reviewer affiliations listed were current at the time of training development. |
Competencies and Capability Functions Addressed
This training addresses selected applied epidemiology, core public health, and public health preparedness and response competencies and public health preparedness capability functions. (Please note: The competencies included on this site are just a few of the public health competencies which have been established. Training participants may find alignment between this training and other competency sets not included on this site.)
Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals Tier 1 |
1A2. Identifies quantitative and qualitative data and information (e.g., vital statistics, electronic health records, transportation patterns, unemployment rates, community input, health equity impact assessments) that can be used for assessing the health of a community (1: Analytical/Assessment Skills) |
1A12. Contributes to assessments of community health status and factors influencing health in a community (e.g., quality, availability, accessibility, and use of health services; access to affordable housing) (1: Analytical/Assessment Skills) |
6A3. Describes how public health sciences (e.g., biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, health services administration, social and behavioral sciences, and public health informatics) are used in the delivery of the 10 Essential Public Health Services (6: Public Health Science Skills) |
Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals Tier 2 |
1B2. Determines quantitative and qualitative data and information (e.g., vital statistics, electronic health records, transportation patterns, unemployment rates, community input, health equity impact assessments) needed for assessing the health of a community (1: Analytical/Assessment Skills) |
1B12. Assesses community health status and factors influencing health in a community (e.g., quality, availability, accessibility, and use of health services; access to affordable housing) (1: Analytical/Assessment Skills) |
6B3. Applies public health sciences (e.g., biostatistics, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, health services administration, social and behavioral sciences, and public health informatics) in the delivery of the 10 Essential Public Health Services (6: Public Health Science Skills) |
Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals Tier 3 |
1C2. Determines quantitative and qualitative data and information (e.g., vital statistics, electronic health records, transportation patterns, unemployment rates, community input, health equity impact assessments) needed for assessing the health of a community (1: Analytical/Assessment Skills) |
1C12. Determines community health status and factors influencing health in a community (e.g., quality, availability, accessibility, and use of health services; access to affordable housing) (1: Analytical/Assessment Skills) |
Public Health Preparedness Capabilities |
Capability 1, Function 1: Determine risks to the health of the jurisdiction |
Capability 13, Function 1: Conduct public health surveillance and detection |
Capability 13, Function 2: Conduct public health and epidemiological investigations |
References
Lantz PM, Mendez D, Philbert, MA. (2013). Radon, smoking, and lung cancer: the need to refocus radon control policy. American Journal of Public Health, 103(3):443-447.
Fann N, Amson AD, Anenberg SC, Wesson K, Risley D, Hubbell BJ, (2012). Estimating the national public health burden associated with exposure to ambient PM2.5 and Ozone, Risk Analysis 32(1):81-95.
Sanders AP, Messier KP, Shehee M, Rudo K, Serre ML, Fry RC. (2011). Arsenic in North Carolina: Public Health Implications, Environment International, Vol. 38 pp. 10-16.
Kammen DM, Hassenzahl, DM. (2001). Should We Risk It? Exploring Environmental, Health, and Technological Problem Solving. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2011). Exposure Factors Handbook: 2011 Edition. Washington, D.C.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Center for Environmental Assessment. (2014). Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). http://www.epa.gov/iris/.