Considering Environmental and Occupational Stressors in Cumulative Risk Assessments
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While definitions vary across the global scientific community, cumulative risk assessments (CRAs) typically are described as exhibiting a population focus and analyzing the combined risks posed by multiple stressors. CRAs also may consider risk management alternatives as an analytic component. To date, traditional human health risk assessments in environmental contexts have typically focused on individual chemical, biological and sometimes physical stressors, although some assessments evaluate chemical mixtures. However, the vision of many for CRA includes considerations of additional types of stressors spanning social, economic, and occupational sources, among others. This presentation will address how approaches, developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, might accommodate integration of occupational and related economic stressors into evaluations of cumulative health risk. This will include consideration of shift work, noise and chronic stress, that might be associated with a work place, as well as related economic stressors such as lack of employment or underemployment (e.g., overqualified for a job, less than full-time job when full-time employment is sought). The integration will highlight the importance of adaptable approaches for CRAs.