Development of Toxicological Risk Assessment Models for Acute and Chronic Exposure to Pollutants
Alert level frameworks advise agencies on a sequence of monitoring and management actions, and are implemented so as to reduce the risk of the public coming into contact with hazardous substances. Their effectiveness relies on the detection of the hazard, but with many systems not receiving any regu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2016-08-01
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| Series: | Toxins |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/8/9/251 |
| _version_ | 1828279975272251392 |
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| author | Elke S. Reichwaldt Daniel Stone Dani J. Barrington Som C. Sinang Anas Ghadouani |
| author_facet | Elke S. Reichwaldt Daniel Stone Dani J. Barrington Som C. Sinang Anas Ghadouani |
| author_sort | Elke S. Reichwaldt |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Alert level frameworks advise agencies on a sequence of monitoring and management actions, and are implemented so as to reduce the risk of the public coming into contact with hazardous substances. Their effectiveness relies on the detection of the hazard, but with many systems not receiving any regular monitoring, pollution events often go undetected. We developed toxicological risk assessment models for acute and chronic exposure to pollutants that incorporate the probabilities that the public will come into contact with undetected pollution events, to identify the level of risk a system poses in regards to the pollutant. As a proof of concept, we successfully demonstrated that the models could be applied to determine probabilities of acute and chronic illness types related to recreational activities in waterbodies containing cyanotoxins. Using the acute model, we identified lakes that present a ‘high’ risk to develop Day Away From Work illness, and lakes that present a ‘low’ or ‘medium’ risk to develop First Aid Cases when used for swimming. The developed risk models succeeded in categorising lakes according to their risk level to the public in an objective way. Modelling by how much the probability of public exposure has to decrease to lower the risks to acceptable levels will enable authorities to identify suitable control measures and monitoring strategies. We suggest broadening the application of these models to other contaminants. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T07:51:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c9c8ca5c08b645f5a8690159fb76a93a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-6651 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T07:51:52Z |
| publishDate | 2016-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Toxins |
| spelling | doaj.art-c9c8ca5c08b645f5a8690159fb76a93a2022-12-22T02:55:30ZengMDPI AGToxins2072-66512016-08-018925110.3390/toxins8090251toxins8090251Development of Toxicological Risk Assessment Models for Acute and Chronic Exposure to PollutantsElke S. Reichwaldt0Daniel Stone1Dani J. Barrington2Som C. Sinang3Anas Ghadouani4Aquatic Ecology and Ecosystem Studies, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, M015, Crawley WA 6009, Western Australia, AustraliaAquatic Ecology and Ecosystem Studies, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, M015, Crawley WA 6009, Western Australia, AustraliaInternational Water Centre, Department of Marketing, Monash University, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Level 16, 333 Ann Street, Brisbane QLD 4000, Queensland, AustraliaFaculty of Science and Mathematics, Sultan Idris Education University, Tanjong Malim 35900, Perak, MalaysiaAquatic Ecology and Ecosystem Studies, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, M015, Crawley WA 6009, Western Australia, AustraliaAlert level frameworks advise agencies on a sequence of monitoring and management actions, and are implemented so as to reduce the risk of the public coming into contact with hazardous substances. Their effectiveness relies on the detection of the hazard, but with many systems not receiving any regular monitoring, pollution events often go undetected. We developed toxicological risk assessment models for acute and chronic exposure to pollutants that incorporate the probabilities that the public will come into contact with undetected pollution events, to identify the level of risk a system poses in regards to the pollutant. As a proof of concept, we successfully demonstrated that the models could be applied to determine probabilities of acute and chronic illness types related to recreational activities in waterbodies containing cyanotoxins. Using the acute model, we identified lakes that present a ‘high’ risk to develop Day Away From Work illness, and lakes that present a ‘low’ or ‘medium’ risk to develop First Aid Cases when used for swimming. The developed risk models succeeded in categorising lakes according to their risk level to the public in an objective way. Modelling by how much the probability of public exposure has to decrease to lower the risks to acceptable levels will enable authorities to identify suitable control measures and monitoring strategies. We suggest broadening the application of these models to other contaminants.http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/8/9/251environmental risk assessmentpollutantcyanobacteriachronic riskacute riskmicrocystinsprobability of exposure |
| spellingShingle | Elke S. Reichwaldt Daniel Stone Dani J. Barrington Som C. Sinang Anas Ghadouani Development of Toxicological Risk Assessment Models for Acute and Chronic Exposure to Pollutants Toxins environmental risk assessment pollutant cyanobacteria chronic risk acute risk microcystins probability of exposure |
| title | Development of Toxicological Risk Assessment Models for Acute and Chronic Exposure to Pollutants |
| title_full | Development of Toxicological Risk Assessment Models for Acute and Chronic Exposure to Pollutants |
| title_fullStr | Development of Toxicological Risk Assessment Models for Acute and Chronic Exposure to Pollutants |
| title_full_unstemmed | Development of Toxicological Risk Assessment Models for Acute and Chronic Exposure to Pollutants |
| title_short | Development of Toxicological Risk Assessment Models for Acute and Chronic Exposure to Pollutants |
| title_sort | development of toxicological risk assessment models for acute and chronic exposure to pollutants |
| topic | environmental risk assessment pollutant cyanobacteria chronic risk acute risk microcystins probability of exposure |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/8/9/251 |
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