Waste and Cleanup Risk Assessment

Within EPA's waste and cleanup programs, risk assessment informs regulatory and program decisions to protect human health and the environment from the risks of contamination and chemical accidents. The National Academy of Sciences Risk Assessment Paradigm forms the basis for risk assessment within EPA's waste and cleanup programs. Existing policy, evolving research, and risk assessment advances converge to inform risk management decisions. Each of EPA's waste and cleanup programs - Superfund, solid waste, chemical accident prevention, underground storage tanks - has adapted and reshaped this paradigm to fit their particular regulatory mandates. These individual risk assessment approaches are described on the Waste and Cleanup Programs' Risk Assessment page.

In additional to information about waste and cleanup risk assessment programs, this site also contains a risk assessment glossary, localized information for all EPA Regions, and other general-interest Risk Assessment information. Resources on this site have been organized by both topic and Risk Assessment Program where possible to allow users looking for program-specific information to find it quickly. The links to the programs on the right side of this page offer additional information about how each program covered on the site operates.

Browse Risk Assessment Topics

Ecological Risk Assessment Topics:

• Planning and Scoping
• Problem Formulation
• Stressor Response and Exposure Analysis
• Risk Characterization

Human Health Risk Assessment Topics:

• Planning and Scoping
• Acute Hazards
• Toxicity (Hazard Identification and Dose Response)
• Exposure Assessment
• Risk Characterization

Additional Risk Assessment Topics:

• Risk Management
• Risk Communication
• Miscellaneous

Program Specific Risk Assessment Topics:

• Risk-Based Decision Making for Underground Storage Tanks