Traditional Tribal Subsistence Exposure Scenario and Risk Assessment Guidance Manual
Author:
Barbara L. Harper, Anna K. Harding, Therese Waterhouse, Stuart G. Harris
Date Published:
8/2007
Description:
In order to estimate doses and risks, we must understand how people interact with the environment. All cultures depend on environmental quality for their survival, but the health of tribal communities and their individual members is so intertwined with their environment as to be inseparable. This leads to quite different perspectives on the risk assessment process and the role of risk in making environmental and health decisions. Nevertheless, the conventional perspective and the tribal perspective must be brought together in order to make risk-based decisions that protect tribal health and the environment. In most cases conventional methods can be modified to a greater or lesser extent. The factors of ingestion rate, frequency, and duration are paramount to estimating risks. Because exposure evaluation methods were developed to reflect exposures received in urban or suburban situations, tribal exposure pathways may not be recognized at all and/or not understood well enough to realize the diversity
and intensity of environmental contact, and therefore the frequency and duration of exposure. The first question, then, is how to recognize whether tribal members use the affected area or resources.
Please help us keep our resource pages current by reporting any broken links or outdated information by using the link below: Report Broken Links, Missing Pages, or Accessibility Issues Report form
