Unit 6: Risk, Exposure, and Health

Unit Overview

We are exposed to numerous chemicals every day from environmental sources such as air and water pollution, pesticides, cleaning products, and food additives. Some of these chemicals are threats to human health, but tracing exposures and determining what levels of risk they pose is a painstaking process. How do harmful substances enter the body, and how do they damage cells? Learn how dangers are assessed, what kind of regulations we use to reduce exposures, and how we manage associated human health risks.

Online Textbook

1. Introduction
2. Risk Assessment
3. Measuring Exposure to Environmental Hazards
4. Using Epidemiology in Risk Assessment
5. Cancer Risk
6. Other Risks
7. Benefit-Cost Analysis and Risk Tradeoffs
8. Risk Perception
9. The Precautionary Principle
10. Major Laws
11. Further Reading

Printable Online Text for This Unit (PDF)