Ecotoxicology, Ecological Risk Assessment and Multiple Stressors (Nato Security through Science Series C:) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1402044747 ISBN 13: 9781402044748

Publisher: Springer, 2006

Synopsis

The science of ecotoxicology and the practice of ecological risk assessment are evolving rapidly. Ecotoxicology as a subject area came into prominence in the 1960s after the publication of Rachel Carson's book on the impact of pesticides on the environment. The rise of public and scientific concern for the effects of chemical pollutants on the environment in the 1960s and 1970s led to the development of the discipline of ecotoxicology, a science that takes into account the effects of chemicals in the context of ecology. Until the early 1980s, in spite of public concern and interest among scientists, the assessment of ecological risks associated with natural or synthetic pollutants was not considered a priority issue by most government. However, as the years passed, a better understanding of the importance of ecotoxicology emerged and with it, in some countries, the progressive formalization of an ecological risk assessment process. Ecological risk assessment is a conceptual tool for organizing and analyzing data and information to evaluate the likelihood that one or more stressors are causing or will cause adverse ecological effects. Ecological risk assessment allows risk managers to consider available scientific information when selecting a course of action, in addition to other factors that may affect their decision (e. g. , social, legal, political, or economic). Ecological risk assessment includes three phases (problem formulation, analysis, and risk characterization).

About this title

Synopsis

The interaction between environment and health is far more complex than is commonly understood. In particular, little attention has been paid to the interaction of different pollutants in the human body as well as in the environment. Even low level exposure over a period of time to a complex cocktail of pollutants in air, water, food and consumer products is likely to contribute significantly to the health status of European citizens. This volume represents new knowledge both on human and environmental risk assessment procedures and although it is generally acknowledged that chemical, biological, radiological, and other stressors can cause a variety of human health or ecological health effects, assessing the risks associated with them is considerably more complex methodologically and computationally than current risk assessment practices. This book is designed to reduce the uncertainty in our current knowledge of ecotoxicology. The four basic topics it embraces are The Science of Ecotoxicology, Ecological Risk Assessment and Multiple Stressors, Methods and Tools in Ecotoxicology and Ecological Risk Assessment and Ecotoxicology and Toxicity Monitoring.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1402044747
• ISBN 13: 9781402044748
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 398
• Editor: Arapis Gerassimos, Goncharova Nadezhda, Baveye Philippe