Risk assessments for natural hazards are becoming more widely used and accepted. Using an extended definition of risk, it becomes obvious that performant procedures for vulnerability assessments are vital for the success of the risk concept. However, there are large gaps in knowledge about vulnerability. To alleviate the situation, a conceptual extension of the scope of existing and new models ...

BACKGROUND Increased concern for potential health and environmental impacts of chemicals, including nanomaterials, in consumer products is driving demand for greater transparency regarding potential risks. Chemical hazard assessment is a powerful tool to inform product design, development and procurement and has been integrated into alternative assessment frameworks. The extent to which assessm...

The concept of marginalization, which is central to studies in political ecology, can be strengthened by incorporating a focus on the mutually constitutive concept of facilitation. Facilitation connotes how privileged groups are provided institutional forms of security in their pursuit of private gain, contributing to deleterious social and ecological outcomes. This paper builds on the concept ...

Quantitative assessment is the most important means to identify hazard potential and manage risk for an industrial process. The implement of quantitative assessment in the early stage will help to develop inherently safer process, eliminating the hazard and reduce the possibility of accidental chain events and the magnitude of consequences. In this paper, after reviewing the presently available...

This paper presents a novel and effective genetic algorithm approach for generating computational models for hazard assessment. With millions of proposed chemicals being registered each year, it is impossible to come even remotely close to completing the battery of tests needed for the proper understanding of the toxic effects of these chemicals. Computer models can give quick, cheap, and envir...

Seismic hazard and risk are fundamentally different concepts. Seismic hazard describes phenomena generated by earthquakes that have potential to cause harm, but seismic risk is the likelihood (chance) of experiencing a specified level of seismic hazard in a given time exposure. Seismic hazard occurs naturally and can be evaluated from instrumental, historical, and geological observations. Seism...

Risk assessments for natural hazards are becoming more widely used and accepted. Using an extended definition of risk, it becomes obvious that performant procedures for vulnerability assessments are vital for the success of the risk concept. However, there are large gaps in knowledge about vulnerability. To alleviate the situation, a conceptual extension of the scope of existing and new models ...

Romania represents one of Europe’s countries with high landslides occurrence frequency. Landslide hazard maps are designed by considering the interaction of several factors which, by their joint action may affect the equilibrium state of the natural slopes. The aim of this paper is landslides hazard assessment using the methodology provided by the Romanian national legislation and a very largel...

This office consists of six professionals and support personnel concerned with the evaluation of environmental health hazards due mainly to chemical agents. An effort initiated earlier to pull together toxicologic information on organ systems and their diseases in humans with environmental or occupational chemical exposures was continued. It received its impetus when the cause of the Legionaire...

The hazard of adverse effects to aquatic organisms arising from groundwater contaminated with a complex mixture of volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHCs) discharging to Penrhyn Estuary, Sydney, Australia was determined using the hazard quotient (HQ) method. The hazard posed by 14 volatile CHCs acting individually and collectively as a mixture was assessed. The hazard was determined using meas...