Table 1.

Definitions of health risk assessment and its steps.

Term/Step	Definition (taken from International Programme on Chemical Safety, 2004)
Health risk assessment	The “process intended to calculate or estimate the risk to a given target organism, system, or (sub)population, including the identification of attendant uncertainties, following exposure to a particular agent, taking into account the inherent characteristics of the agent of concern as well as the characteristics of the specific target system” (p14)
Step 1: Hazard identification	“The identification of the type and nature of adverse effects that an agent has an inherent capacity to cause in an organism, system, or (sub)population” (p13)
Step 2: Hazard characterisation	“The qualitative and, wherever possible, quantitative description of the inherent property of an agent or situation having the potential to cause adverse effects. This should, where possible, include a dose–response assessment and its attendant uncertainties” (p13)
Step 3: Exposure assessment	“Evaluation of the exposure of an organism, system, or (sub)population to an agent (and its derivatives)” (p12)
Step 4: Risk characterisation	“The qualitative and, wherever possible, quantitative determination, including attendant uncertainties, of the probability of occurrence of known and potential adverse effects of an agent in a given organism, system, or (sub)population, under defined exposure conditions” (p14)