Health Risk Assessment in the Workplace

Abstract

Abstract The practice of assessing risks of exposures to human health which supports worker health, financial, business, feasibility, communication, and liability decision‐making is a relatively recent development. Exposures may pertain to chemical, physical, biological, and biomechanical hazards. Decisions may include protection of human health, regulatory business, liability, feasibility, and communications. Until the twentieth century, diseases had been observed to be associated with specific occupations, living conditions, and chemicals. However, these observations were predominantly qualitative. In addition, the focus on public health was predominantly associated with concerns about infectious disease until about the mid‐twentieth century. The quantification of risks took hold in the 1970s for the following reasons – shift from a high incidence of infectious disease to concerns about chronic disease; a new awareness of the risks resulting from exposures to chemicals; and scientific and technological advances such as chemical analysis, toxicity testing, epidemiology, and computers. This chapter recounts the history and evolution of human health risk assessment, tracing the development of tools and models that made it possible, as well as the factors in society that made it indispensable. It defines the practice of risk assessment today, taking the reader through hazard and exposure analysis, risk characterization, the management of risk, and the public's reaction to risk.