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635108 
Journal Article 
Science and decisions: Advancing risk assessment 
Abt, E; Rodricks, JV; Levy, JI; Zeise, L; Burke, TA 
2010 
1 
Risk Analysis
ISSN: 0272-4332
EISSN: 1539-6924 
30 
7 
1028-1036 
English 
20497395 
WOS:000279939700006 
is also published as 180073 Science and decisions: Advancing risk assessment
At the request of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Research Council (NRC) recently completed a major report, Science and Decisions: Advancing Risk Assessment, that is intended to strengthen the scientific basis, credibility, and effectiveness of risk assessment practices and subsequent risk management decisions. The report describes the challenges faced by risk assessment and the need to consider improvements in both the technical analyses of risk assessments (i.e., the development and use of scientific information to improve risk characterization) and the utility of risk assessments (i.e., making assessments more relevant and useful for risk management decisions). The report tackles a number of topics relating to improvements in the process, including the design and framing of risk assessments, uncertainty and variability characterization, selection and use of defaults, unification of cancer and noncancer dose-response assessment, cumulative risk assessment, and the need to increase EPA's capacity to address these improvements. This article describes and summarizes the NRC report, with an eye toward its implications for risk assessment practices at EPA. 
• Nanoscale Carbon