Lawmakers should recognize uncertainties in risk assessment
Dietary pesticide risk assessment is an imprecise process requiring a series of judgments based on both scientific and philosophical grounds. At best, it is a crude quantitative tool to prioritize risks and allocate resources — a method involving a great deal of uncertaint...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources
1994-01-01
|
| Series: | California Agriculture |
| Online Access: | http://calag.ucanr.edu/archive/?article=ca.v048n01p21 |
| Summary: | Dietary pesticide risk assessment is an imprecise process requiring a series of judgments
based on both scientific and philosophical grounds. At best, it is a crude quantitative
tool to prioritize risks and allocate resources — a method involving a great deal
of uncertainty. Where uncertainties exist, scientists make conservative assumptions
designed to increase the risk estimate so that errors are made on the side of safety.
While risk assessment plays a necessary and critical role in pesticide regulation,
the uncertainty inherent in the process must be appreciated if appropriate science-based
policies are to be developed. Scientific advances are needed to improve risk assessment
accuracy, and policies must be flexible enough to allow such advances to be incorporated
into the risk assessment process. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0008-0845 2160-8091 |