International audience ; Environmental risks are a multi- and interdisciplinary topic with a great interest in current society. This book examines the issues of natural hazards (e.g., typhoons, landslides, wildfires), anthropogenic activities (construction of artificial dams, the operation of nuclear power plants), and their potential risks to the environment and/ or quality of life at various scales, from local to regional and even at a global level. Th book intends to discuss concepts, methods, and techniques to address environmental risks and vulnerabilities, revealing the complex interactions between nature and human communities and activities. Policies and practices for disaster risk management should be based on the best state-of-the-art methods and techniques, integration between natural and/or social approaches, interdisciplinary research, and multilevel cooperation
This book presents real cases of the air, water and soil pollution with harmful substances, both toxic and mutagenic, and gives examples of environmental hazards estimation as well as health risk assessment in different exposure scenarios. The described examples include all elements of risk estimation procedure starting from hazard identification, followed by exposure assessment, determination of dose-response relation, risk characterization and ending with uncertainty analysis. The cases aim to help the reader to understand more clearly different calculation methodologies and to carry out the risk assessment in different environments. The book is intended as a selection of the representative hazard cases aimed at students, professionals and other users interested in environmental engineering, environmental chemistry, environmental safety and all areas of environmental science where human health and well-being are involved. ; Environmental risk is actual or potential hazard for living organisms and other elements of the environment that may exhibit adverse effects caused by effluents, emissions and waste materials, arising from human activities. As-sessment of the health risk is a procedure within a scope of the environmental risk assessment. Estimation of the health risk comprises qualitative and quanti-tative evaluation of the human's exposure to environmental contamination. On this basis probability of manifestation of adverse health effects in a popula-tion is determined. This work deals with the topics of assessment of risk for human health arising from environmental contamination. Procedures of the environmental health risk assessment had been devel-oped in the 1980s as a part of a Federal government effort to clean up land in the United States that was contaminated by hazardous waste and that was identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The program was created when Congress Enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Until that time the primary method of environmental hazard evaluation consisted in comparing the real contamination level with pollutants' permissible concentrations in the air, water and soil. The highest permissible concentrations of the pollutants in the environment have been set out by the governments of particular countries in order to protect humans from possible exposition to harmful substances found in the air, water and soil. Such an approach however, does not reflect the real health hazard level that the people are facing during their contact with the environment. In fact, the probability of health effects incidences caused by the pollutants depends not only on the arbitrarily adopted permissible concentrations but most of all on the exposure scenarios of the population considered. It is only the full analysis of actual health risk that shows real effects of the polluted environment on hu-mans. This book presents cases of the air, water and soil pollution with harmful substances, both toxic and mutagenic, and gives examples of hazard's estima-tion as well as health risk assessment in different exposure scenarios. Residen-tial and occupational scenarios are mostly taken into account. They include all elements of the procedure starting from hazard identification, followed by ex-posure assessment, determination of dose-response relation, risk characteriza-tion and ending with uncertainty analysis. Also some recommendations in a concise manner are given aiming at hazard as well as health risk abatement. The presented examples involve real, independent cases that were subjects to governmental grants and commercial projects. The cases aim to help the reader to understand more clearly different calculation methodologies and to carry out the risk assessment in different environments. The work focus are exclusively anthropogenic emissions released as a result of routine commercial businesses, municipal activities as well as technical disasters affecting human health and well-being. It should be stressed that there exist examples of the environmental pollution where, so far, no precise risk assessment is possible due to the lack of necessary data or reliable estimation procedures. Such a case could be contamination with petroleum products which usually constitute a mixture of hundreds chemical compounds of different chemical, physical and toxicological properties. This book is intended as a selection of the representative cases describing risk estimation procedures, aimed at students, professionals and other users interested in disciplines ranging from environmental engineering and environ-mental chemistry to environmental safety and all areas of environmental science where human health and well-being are involved. ; Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego
This article summarizes views on environmental risk education for youth and identifies some challenges to advancing environmental risk education. It is argued that education—in particular, formal (in‐school, structured) education—can play an important role in helping to create an environmental risk‐literate society. Recommendations focus on developing a framework of environmental risk education goals and objectives, evaluating environmental risk education efforts, and learning more about how to help youth make informed environmental risk decisions and to prepare them to participate in environmental risk management. It is hoped that this article will encourage greater involvement of risk professionals in environmental risk education efforts and related research.
"Environmental risk directly affects the financial stability of banks since they bear the financial consequences of the loss of liquidity of the entities to which they lend, and of the financial penalties imposed resulting from the failure to comply with regulations, and for actions taken, which are harmful to the natural environment. This book explores the impact of environmental risk on the banking sector and analyzes strategies to mitigate this risk with a special emphasis on the role of modeling. It argues that environmental risk modeling allows banks to estimate the patterns and consequences of environmental risk on their operations, and to take measures within the context of asset and liability management to minimize the likelihood of losses. An important role here is played by the environmental risk modeling methodology, as well as the software and mathematical and econometric models used. It examines banks' responses to macroprudential risk, particularly from the point of view of their adaptation strategies, the mechanisms of its spread, risk management and modeling, and sustainable business models. It introduces the basic concepts, definitions and regulations concerning this type of risk, within the context of its influence on the banking industry. The book is primarily based on a quantitative and qualitative approach and proposes the delivery of a new methodology of environmental risk management and modelling in the banking sector. As such, it will appeal to researchers, scholars and students of environmental economics, finance and banking, sociology, law and political sciences"--
In: Policy sciences: integrating knowledge and practice to advance human dignity ; the journal of the Society of Policy Scientists, Band 32, Heft 1, S. 39-58