Health Risk Science
Health risk science is a transdisciplinary field, relying
on population genetics, epidemiology, toxicology, clinical science,
and health surveillance to generate the scientific data needed for
risk characterization. It is a rapidly evolving field, with powerful
new methodologies for population health risk assessment now available
to characterize population health risks (National Research Council
2007b). New methods
for describing uncertainties in estimates of population health risks
are now coming into use, providing decision makers with a more complete
assessment of risk (National Research Council 1994b).
A key feature
of health risk science is the integration of information from different sources,
taking into account all relevant data on the biology and genetic endowment,
environmental and occupational and, social and behavioral determinants of health
risk and the interactions at play among these risk factors. A comprehensive
assessment of health risk may involve the application of new methods for the
combined analysis of data from different sources, both to resolve conflicting
or ambiguous findings and to summarize complex interactions in an understandable
fashion.
Reproduced from: Krewski D, Hogan V, Turner
MC, Zeman P, McDowell I, Edwards N, Losos J. 2007. An Integrated
Framework for Risk Management and Population Health. Human and
Ecological Risk Assessment, in press.
References:
National Research Council. 1994b. Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment.
National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
National Research Council. 2007b. Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century.
National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
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