811334 Risk assessment in the aquatic environment

Type
Lecture and exercise
Semester hours
2
Lecturer (assistant)
Organisation
Offered in
Wintersemester 2022/23
Languages of instruction
Englisch
Content

Methods of risk assessment für human health risks and environmental risks
The steps of risk assessment will be explained: exposure assessment and effect assessment. Parameters and methods and their meaning for the evaluation of exposure and effects will be discussed. Special contaminants, their sources fate and transport in environmental media and the predicted exposure concentration will be described.

The effects will be characterised in terms of toxicokinetics (including bioaccumulation) and toxicodynamics (dose response relationship, calculation of predicted no effect concentration – PNEC). Methods for the effect measurements will be presented

In addition the assessment for validity of data and the combination of exposure and effect data to evaluate the risk and derive target values will be explained for environmental risks and human risks. Risk management measures and the problems of risk communication will be discussed.

Examples will be calculated.
Previous knowledge expected

Basic knowledge on chemistry
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

The goal of the lecture is to raise a broad understanding of the complex issue of standard setting and its background especially the standards based on risk assessment. To achieve a basic understanding on the risk assessment methods: the students should know the major properties of importance for exposure and effect assessment, have a basic understanding of the methods for exposure and effect assessment, can explain the concepts of human and environmental RA,
understand the uncertainties and importance of data quality, be able to do basic calculations of PEC and PNEC, understand the major problems of toxicological risk assessment
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.