ISO 31000:2009 provides principles and generic guidelines on risk management.
ISO 31000:2009 can be used by any public, private or community enterprise, association, group or individual. Therefore, ISO 31000:2009 is not specific to any industry or sector.
ISO 31000:2009 can be applied throughout the life of an organization, and to a wide range of activities, including strategies and decisions, operations, processes, functions, projects, products, services and assets.
Risk assessment provides a systematic procedure for predicting potential risks to human health or the environment. The aim of a chemical risk assessment is to investigate if a chemical is being used or can be used as intended without causing detrimental effects to human health or the environment.
An environmental risk assessment (ERA) is a process of predicting whether there may be a risk of adverse effects on the environment caused by a chemical substance. Environmental exposure concentrations of a chemical are predicted and compared to predicted no-effect concentrations for different environmental compartments.
Risk assessment is the formal process of evaluating the consequences of a hazard and their probabilities.
The assessment itself typically involves four stages:
(1) identifying the hazard(s);
(2) assessing the potential consequences;
(3) assessing the probability of the consequences;
(4) characterising the risk and uncertainty.
In this sense, the risk assessment addresses the so-called ‘risk triplet’; i.e
(a) what can go wrong; (b) what the consequences are; (c) how likely the consequences are. The risk triplet is a favoured approach to assessing the risks from engineered systems.
Approach to risk assessment Irrespective of whether the risk assessor applies qualitative or quantitative methods, there are similarities in the stages followed to estimate the magnitude of the risk before evaluating its significance. Considering the ‘risk triplet’ and Figure 8 above, the risk assessment must understand the environmental consequences posed by a specific hazard, evaluate the consequences that may arise if the hazard is realized, and then evaluate the likelihoods of these consequences.
In general, the steps that an assessor follows when conducting a risk assessment are below:
Step 1. Data requirements (part of the screening process)
Determine whether the notification data package is complete for a given category of chemical.
Step 2. Data evaluation
Evaluate the data for its reliability, relevance and adequacy.
Step 3. Environmental exposure
Determine how the environment is potentially exposed during all stages of the chemical’s life cycle.
Step 4. Environmental effects assessment
Determine what effects the chemical may have on the environment.
Step 5. PBT assessment
Consider the persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity of the chemical.
Step 6. Risk characterization and risk management
Determine the potential for, and the magnitude of the risk to the environment.
