Definition of Terms

Acute Exposure - A single exposure to a toxic substance that results in severe biological
harm or death. Acute exposures are usually characterized as lasting no longer than a day
or a short time period relative to the life of the organism experiencing exposure.
Acute Toxicity - The deleterious, often poisonous effect of a substance characterized as
evoking biological harm, including death from a single exposure.
Acute - Refers to a short time period. In biological testing this is associated with a
stimulus severe enough to induce a rapid response. The response measured may be
mortality or a variety of physiological, developmental, or morphological endpoints. Note
that acute is not synonymous with mortality in toxicity testing.
Analysis Phase - The middle stage of an Environmental Risk Assessment that describes
hazard and exposure conditions.
Assessment Endpoint - Formal expression of the actual environmental value to be
protected. The Assessment Endpoint is the product of the Problem Formulation Phase
of an Environmental Risk Assessment; it defines the focus of investigation.
Biological Agents - Living organisms such as bacteria, viruses, weeds, or insects that
have the potential to cause an adverse effect.
Chemical Agents - Chemicals, pesticides, or poisons that have the potential to cause an
adverse effect.
Chronic Toxicity - The deleterious, often poisonous effect of a substance characterized
as evoking biological harm, including death, from an extended exposure.
Chronic - Refers to a long time period. In biological testing, this is associated with a
stimulus that may require extended exposure before a response is manifested. The
response measured may be mortality or a variety of physiological, development, or
morphological endpoints. Note that chronic is not synonymous with survival in toxicity
testing.
Comparative Risk Assessment - Relative or ranked estimates of adverse effects of
different agents or different environmental actions (e.g. alternative management options).
Conceptual Model - An illustration depicting relationships among human ecological
resources and their physical/chemical environment. The Conceptual Model incorporates

food web relationships, fate and transport of chemicals, and possible exposure routes. The
Conceptual Model is developed in the Problem Formulation Phase of an Environmental
Risk Assessment and helps guide discussions toward selection of Assessment Endpoints.
Deterministic Risk Assessment - An estimate of adverse effects based on discrete values
for hazard and exposure; innate variability and error are not incorporated in the estimates.
An example of the results of a Deterministic Risk Assessment might be the cancer risk
exceeds 5 x 10-6.
Dose - Measurement of the amount received by the receptor, either human, other animal,
plant, or microbe.
EC50 - The estimated concentration of the contaminating and/or toxic substance, which
results in a 50% reduction in some biological endpoint, measured at the conclusion of the
test.
Ecological Endpoints - A measurement or assessment feature centered on populations,
communities, or ecosystem attributes.
Ecological Health - Being used as a synonym of ecosystem integrity. Borrowed from
human medical terms, it connotes wellness or freedom from disease or pain. To some,
this term has anthropocentric features and as such is acceptable for policy discussions but
is not appropriate as a scientific term.
Ecological Integrity - The unimpaired condition or wholeness of biotic populations,
communities or ecosystems. Because ecosystems are comprised of assemblages of
organisms interacting in various ways among themselves and with the abiotic
environment, assessment of integrity is exceedingly subjective.
Ecological Risk Assessment - A subset of Environmental Risk Assessment; the
technology that evaluates interactions of non-human organisms and agents in the
environment. The Ecological Risk Assessment contains a description of ecological
resources and agents, analysis of agents and exposure potential, characterization of the
potential for adverse effects, and communication of information about the risks to plants
and animals.
Ecology - The study of distribution and abundance of organisms. It is an integrative
science focusing on the multitude of relationships among organisms and their
environment.
Ecosystem - An arbitrary unit of nature comprised of assemblages of organisms
operating as a system in which energy flows and nutrients are processed.

Ecotoxicology - The study of toxicity in the context of ecological assessment endpoints.

Environmental Assessment - An evaluation or appraisal of contaminants. This can be
accomplished solely through measurement and evaluation of concentrations of substances
and potential movement of the substances without invoking actual biological effects at
the site.
Environmental Risk Assessment - The technology that evaluates interactions of agents,
humans, and ecological resources. Environmental Risk Assessment is comprised of
Human Health Risk Assessment and Ecological Risk Assessment. It contains a
description of human populations, ecological resources, and agents, analysis of agents
and exposure potential, characterization of the potential for adverse effects, and
communication of information about the risks to humans and ecosystems.
Epidemiological Study - Study of human population to identify causes of disease. These
studies generally compare the health status of a group that was previously exposed to an
agent with that of a comparable unexposed group.
Exposure - The condition under which an organism, (or more precisely the target tissue)
comes into actual contact with a stressor. This is sometimes assumed, under conservative
assumptions, to be the amount of contaminant in the environment. However, in site
specific considerations, the exposure value is substantially less than the quantity in the
environment.
Fate and Transport - The destiny and movement opportunities of a contaminating
substance. Chemical, biological, and/or physical processes may alter or degrade the
parent material; water, wind, or biological agents may influence movement from one
locus to another in some time interval.
Final Tier - The iteration of an Environmental Risk Assessment emphasizes quantitative
descriptions of hazard and exposure to generate probabilistic estimates of risk. "Real
World" conditions are used in place of "worst case" estimates to improve the accuracy of
the risk estimates.
Hazard - A possible source of danger; the innate properties of an agent (biological,
chemical, or physical) to cause harm. (See Toxicity).
Human Health Risk Assessment - A subset of Environment Risk Assessment; the
technology that evaluates interactions of humans and agents in the environment. The
Human Health Risk Assessment contains a description of target human populations and

agents, analysis of agents and exposure potential, characterization of the potential for
adverse effects, and communication of information about the risks to individual humans.
Interference - The effect one organism has on another through the competition for
environmental resources (e.g. light, water, food) or addition of chemicals (e.g. antibiotics
or allelochemicals).
Iterative Process - The progressive refinement of focus and detail in Environmental Risk
Assessment through the Scoping, Screening and Final Tiers. Within a tier, portions of the
activity may also have several refinements such as development of the Conceptual Model
in Problem Formulation that begins as a generic construct and evolves to a project
specific illustration.
Likelihood - Statistical probability that an event will occur.
Measurement Endpoint - The chemical, biological, physical, or ecological condition
that is quantified; ideally, this yields information on the effect of an agent; the
measurement endpoint must correspond to or be predictive of an assessment endpoint.
Physical Agents - Mechanical equipment, or machinery that has the potential to cause a
disturbance or an adverse effect.
Probabilistic Risk Assessment - An estimate of adverse effects that incorporate
statistical distributions for hazard and exposure estimates. An example of the results of a
Probabilistic Risk Assessment might be 90% likelihood of having a "50% reduction in a
fish population."
Probability - The chance that a given event will occur, generally stated as a value
ranging from 0 to 1.0.
Problem Formulation Phase - The starting point of an Ecological Risk Assessment that
focuses on developing explicit Assessment Endpoints and a Conceptual Model.
Qualitative Risk Assessment - A non-numerical description of adverse consequences,
often expressed in categories such as low, moderate, severe; often used in scoping or
screening level risk assessments to eliminate trivial issues.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) - A system of procedures, checks, audits,
and corrective actions to ensure that research design and performance meet expected
standards of precision and accuracy.

Quantitative Risk Assessment - A numerical description of adverse consequences

stating the probability of a specified magnitude of adverse effects occurring.
Resiliency - The capacity of an organism, population, community, or ecosystem to
recover from some stress (e.g., chemical insult) to a pre-stress condition once the stress
has been removed.
Risk Characterization Phase - The closing stage of an Environmental Risk Assessment
Tier that describes the relationship of hazard and exposure as an estimate of risk. It
describes the uncertainty incorporated in the estimate of risk which must be
communicated to risk managers and stakeholders.
Risk Management - Action to reduce or minimize risk and to provide options that
balance possible risks with economic gains.
Risk - The likelihood (probability) of an adverse effect, on human health or the
environment.
Scoping Tier - The initial Environmental Risk Assessment emphasizing the Problem
Formulation or Hazard Identification Phase; typically uses conservative estimates (i.e.,
worst case estimates) of hazard and exposure. Estimates of risk are often qualitative. The
objective of the Scoping Tier is to eliminate trivial issues before proceeding with detailed,
more expensive investigations.
Screening Tier - This is an intermediate level Environmental Risk Assessment that
incorporates greater rigor than the Scoping Tier in describing hazard and exposure
conditions, but may still rely on conservative estimates and deterministic approaches to
estimating risk. The objective is to identify the major outstanding risk issues and, if
possible, eliminate some of the lesser issues before proceeding with detailed
investigations.
Stakeholders - Individuals or groups who are directly or indirectly affected by a
management action and who have an interest in the outcome of such actions or
management decisions.
Uncertainty - Doubt, lack of assurance as to the true value of a variable, considering all
the possible values attributed to data or information. In Risk Assessment, uncertainty can
sometimes be expressed in quantitative terms.