Environmental Risk Assessment & Management Flashcards
7 cards from real CEP practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Environmental Risk Assessment & Management flashcards as text
The 'hazard quotient' (HQ) in non-cancer risk assessment is calculated as:
Answer: Exposure dose divided by the reference dose
HQ = exposure dose / reference dose (RfD); an HQ greater than 1 indicates potential non-cancer risk concern.
Which EPA tier approach is used when site-specific data are insufficient and relies on conservative default assumptions?
Answer: Tier 1 – Screening-Level Risk Assessment
Tier 1 screening-level assessments use conservative default values and generic assumptions to identify sites that may require further investigation.
Under the EPA's Risk-Based Corrective Action (RBCA) framework, cleanup standards are determined by:
Answer: Site-specific risk calculations linked to future land use
RBCA ties cleanup standards to site-specific risk calculations that account for actual or reasonably anticipated land use and exposure conditions.
What does a 'slope factor' (SF) quantify in cancer risk assessment?
Answer: The probability of developing cancer per unit dose of a carcinogen
The cancer slope factor represents the upper-bound probability of developing cancer per unit of lifetime average daily dose of a carcinogen.
A 'natural attenuation' remedy is most appropriate when:
Answer: Monitored natural processes can degrade contaminants to acceptable levels within a reasonable timeframe
Monitored Natural Attenuation (MNA) is appropriate when natural processes (biodegradation, dilution, sorption) can reduce contamination to protective levels without posing unacceptable risk.
The 'precautionary principle' applied to environmental risk management means that:
Answer: Lack of full scientific certainty is not a reason to postpone protective measures when threats are serious
The precautionary principle holds that when activities raise threats of serious environmental harm, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause-effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.
Environmental stress testing in ESG context evaluates:
Answer: A company's financial resilience to physical and transition climate risks under adverse scenarios
In ESG, environmental stress testing models how a company's financial performance would be affected by climate-related physical risks (floods, heat) and transition risks (carbon pricing, regulation) under adverse scenarios.