"A human risk assessment is a document wherein all the pertinent scientific information regarding toxicology, human exposure, environmental fate and exposure are assembled, critiqued and interpreted. The goal of a risk assessment is to estimate the adverse effect on humans, wildlife or ecological systems posed by a specific chemical or physical hazard. Risk assessments are thoroughly dependent on the degree of the exposure. As a result, assessments of health hazards posed by workplaces, hazardous waste sites, ambient air pollutants, water pollutants, soil contaminants and food contaminants are dependent on the both the potency of the agent and level of exposure. The same principles apply to assessment of plants, fish, birds, insects, large and small mammals, reptiles and other wildlife. Every major occupational, environmental, and ecological regulation in most industrialized countries has required a risk assessment before any action is taken"-- Provided by publisher