Publisher's Synopsis
Environmental risks have become an important concern of scientists, policy-makers, government regulators, and the general public. This book deals with the scientific basis for assessing such risks. It describes the epidemiologic methods that are used to identify specific environmental and occupational hazards and to estimate the levels of risk to human health associated with them. It also discusses critical methodologic issues such as precision of exposure measurements, latent periods before effects occur, general ability of findings in one set of circumstances to others, and quantifying the expression of risk. These issues are exemplified in a number of case studies such as asbestos and cancer, saccharine, leukemia, and petroleum products, ionizing radiation, hard versus soft water, and estrogens and breast cancer. The book concludes with a discussion of the relationship of risk assessment to public policy.
