Environmental research at risk

Male reproductive organs are at risk from environmental hazards.

Male reproductive disorders that are of interest from an environmental point of view include sexual dysfunction, infertility, cryptorchidism, hypospadias and testicular cancer. Several reports suggest declining sperm counts and increase of these reproductive disorders in some areas during some time periods past 50 years. Except for testicular cancer this evidence is circumstantial and needs cau...

Identifying populations at risk from environmental contamination from point sources.

OBJECTIVES To compare methods for defining the population at risk from a point source of air pollution. A major challenge for environmental epidemiology lies in correctly identifying populations at risk from exposure to environmental pollutants. The complexity of today's environment makes it essential that the methods chosen are accurate and sensitive. METHODS Environmental and mathematical m...

Application of environmental risk analysis at contaminated sites.

Contaminated sites represent a challenge for all European Countries. Clean-up strategies currently focus on a risk-based approach for the definition of remediation goals. Many of the technical standards developed for the application of risk assessment at contaminated sites do not take into account the risk posed to human health by sediment contamination in a common framework. The present paper ...

Just who is at risk? The ethics of environmental regulation.

The willingness to view risk as part of daily life has vanished. A risk-averse mindset among environmental regulators engenders confusion between the ethics of intention and the ethics of consequence, leading to the elevation of the precautionary principle with unintended and often unfortunate outcomes. Environmental risk assessment is conservative, but the actual level of conservatism cannot b...

Institute for Environmental Research