Biological monitoring: Essential foundation for ecological risk assessment

Assessment of risk by biological monitoring.

Variability between workers is reflected in differences in uptake, metabolism, and excretion of toxic substances, and thus individual response to toxic hazards. It is argued that biological monitoring takes account of these differences enabling individual risk assessments to be made. Risk, however, must be seen in terms of clinical and pathological changes-that is, estimated from morbidity and ...

Guidelines for Ecological Risk Assessment

Ecological risk assessment of heavy metals from cement factory dust

Background: The release of metals from industrial factories is one of the most important sources of environmental pollution. The present study aimed to determine the concentration of heavy metals like cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), and lead (Pb) in dust around the cement factory. Methods: A total of 22 dust samples were collected from areas around the cement factory...

Human and Ecological Risk Assessment

Yellow perch (YP) are metal tolerant fish that form large populations in many metal-impacted regions across Canada. While they are able to survive and reproduce successfully in environments with water and sediment metal concentrations that are toxic to many invertebrates, perch experience a suite of direct and indirect impacts. YP were studied in a series of Canadian Precambrian Shield lakes ne...

Ecosystem services as assessment endpoints for ecological risk assessment.

Ecosystem services are defined as the outputs of ecological processes that contribute to human welfare or have the potential to do so in the future. Those outputs include food and drinking water, clean air and water, and pollinated crops. The need to protect the services provided by natural systems has been recognized previously, but ecosystem services have not been formally incorporated into e...