Timo Assmuth

Integrated risk assessment and risk governance as socio-political phenomena: a synthetic view of the challenges.

To call for integration in risk assessment and governance as a self-evident goal is deceptively easy. For more insight, we ask: what level and kind of integration and for what purposes is needed and sufficient? What opportunities and obstacles can be identified for integrative treatment of risks? What causes and impacts are there of developments in risk integration? To answer these questions we investigate the socio-political processes and factors surrounding integrated risk assessment and risk governance through a combination of literature reviews and original research. We emphasize regulatory assessment and governance of risks associated with chemicals in the EU, but we link them with other areas to better grasp options and problems in integration. We relate the problems to political factors and barriers in sector and vertical integration, including deviating interests, and further to conflicting information, concepts and mindsets. Risk assessment and risk governance involve varying notions of risks and knowledge, with tensions between stressor- or impact-oriented, exclusive or inclusive, positivist or relativist, and fixed or reflexive notions and approaches. These tensions influence the trajectories of integration between sectors, actors and regions, constraining the fulfillment of ideals of integrated governance. We conclude that risk assessment and governance can be integrated, harmonized and innovated to a limit only, but this limit is variable and flexible, and provides opportunities especially if attention is paid to the socio-political contexts, value choices and decision structures in each case. Generally, the results underline a reflexive approach whereby the meanings, framings and implications of risk integration are probed in open processes of deliberation and negotiation, as a learning process to transcend the formal and prescriptive modes of regulation and knowledge generation.

Concentrations of 2,3,7,8-chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans at landfills and disposal sites for chlorophenolic wood preservative wastes

Abstract Concentration patterns of 16 key 2,3,7,8-substituted PCDD/F congeners were analysed at ppt levels in waste, soil, sediment and leachate samples from 3 mixed-waste landfills, 2 sawmill dumps and the disposal site of the factory which produced the mixture of 2346-TeCP, PCP and 246-TCP used as wood preservative at Finnish sawmills. At this site, I-TE sum of 21 ngg −1 (DS) was observed in leachate discharge dike sediments, the main contributing analytes being 123678-HxCDF, 1234678-HpCDF (at a level of 700 ngg −1 ) and 1234678-HpCDD. Also OCDF (at 490 ngg −1 ), OCDD and 1234678-HxCDD were among the most abundant congeners. In sawmill dump wastes, OCDF or HpCDF was dominant, followed by 4-substituted HxCDD/Fs; the maximum I-TE sum was 2.1 ngg −1 (DS). Even in most landfill leachates OCDF and 123678-HxCDFs; were the most abundant and important congeners, but the highest I-TE sum (360 pgl −1 in the aqueous phase of perched water) was mainly attributed to 2378-TCDD.

Unrecognized, concealed, or forgotten -- the case of absent information in risk communication

There are differing and partially incompatible views about what kind of issues should be included into risk discussions and what kinds of risks should be emphasized and dealt with. While the emergence of new risks has been extensively studied, relatively little attention has been paid to the roles that the absence of information can play in risk debates. Potentially relevant information may be downplayed or omitted and less relevant overemphasized when actors with varying interests, knowledge bases, and risk frames interact. Multiple and cumulative environmental and health risks caused by chemicals and other stressors pose particular challenges for risk communication. We identify and discuss different forms of unrecognized, hidden, and forgotten information by using chemical risks as a case. A widely applicable typology of absent information in risk communication is outlined.

Communicating Chemical Risks for Social Learning: Findings from an Expert Opinion Survey.

Environmental and health risks caused by chemical substances have been intensively debated in various arenas of science and policy, and in news media. The impacts of risk debates on the public have been widely studied, while less attention has been paid to expert views. We present results from a cross-national survey charting expert views on the policy-level assessment, management, and communication of chemical risks. We focus on the need for reflexive concepts and approaches in risk assessment and governance when seen as social learning processes. Based on the results we present recommendations for improving risk communication of expert organizations.

Integrated frameworks for assessing and managing health risks in the context of managed aquifer recharge with river water.

Integrated assessment and management of water resources for the supply of potable water is increasingly important in light of projected water scarcity in many parts of the world. This article develops frameworks for regional-level waterborne human health risk assessment of chemical and microbiological contamination to aid water management, incorporating economic aspects of health risks. Managed aquifer recharge with surface water from a river in Southern Finland is used as an illustrative case. With a starting point in watershed governance, stakeholder concerns, and value-at-risk concepts, we merge common methods for integrative health risk analysis of contaminants to describe risks and impacts dynamically and broadly. This involves structuring analyses along the risk chain: sources-releases-environmental transport and fate-exposures-health effects-socio-economic impacts-management responses. Risks attributed to contaminants are embedded in other risks, such as contaminants from other sources, and related to benefits from improved water quality. A set of models along this risk chain in the case is presented. Fundamental issues in the assessment are identified, including 1) framing of risks, scenarios, and choices; 2) interaction of models and empirical information; 3) time dimension; 4) distributions of risks and benefits; and 5) uncertainties about risks and controls. We find that all these combine objective and subjective aspects, and involve value judgments and policy choices. We conclude with proposals for overcoming conceptual and functional divides and lock-ins to improve modeling, assessment, and management of complex water supply schemes, especially by reflective solution-oriented interdisciplinary and multi-actor deliberation.

Big pictures, close-ups, roadmaps and mind-maps: perspectives on integrated treatment of multiple risks

Integrated risk assessment is an attempt to deal with the management challenge of a multitude of risks or risk consequences. We studied perspectives of regulators, stakeholders and experts on cumulative risks from multiple stressors and on their integrated assessment in relation to environmental chemicals. We developed conceptual models of risk framing and risk information in policy contexts, and applied these models in empirical studies. These focused on internet surveys of expert views on cumulative risks and on the information needed for their regulatory management and for public debate; interviews with EU regulators and stakeholders regarding integrated regulatory risk assessment and management, specifically with REACH legislation; communication experiments at stakeholder meetings on participatory governance of multiple risks. The paper reports and discusses key findings, emphasising interactions of assessment and management, relationships between deliberation and precaution and the potential of integrated assessments to guide them, and roles of communication herein. On the basis of these findings we present recommendations for the development of risk assessment and governance.

Analysis of toxicological risks from local contamination by PCDDs and PCDFs : importance of isomer distributions and toxic equivalents

The concentrations of 2,3,7,8-chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDD/PCDFs) at Finnish contaminated sites associated with chlorophenolic (CP) wood preservatives were measured by isomer-specific GC/HRMS methods, and the implications of the spatial and structural distributions of the isomers and of toxic equivalent (TEF) systems for toxicological risks were investigated. High concentrations (maximum value of over 90 ppb and arithmetic mean value of 19 ppb I-TEQs in dry weight) of PCDD/Fs were found in soil samples from sites where wood preservative consisting of 2346-TeCP, PeCP and 246-TCP have been used. The PCDD/Fs were distributed heterogeneously between soil layers, the concentrations in topsoil samples being generally smaller (mean 9.1 ppb I-TEQ d.w.) than those in subsoil (mean 28 ppb I-TEQ d.w.). Concentrations of PCDD/Fs were unrelated to the CP contents in the soil samples. Hexa-, hepta- and octachlorinated dibenzofurans were the dominant congeners by concentration in these and in most other samples, also in the wood preservative. The isomer distribution differed considerably between study sites, and even between samples of soil and waste at the same site. The relative importance of the samples and isomers was affected by the selection of TEFs; the importance of some of the CP-related samples was increased when applying TEFs based on lethality to juvenile fish, due to the abundance of 123478-HxCDF.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Integrated Frameworks for Assessing and Managing Health Risks in the Context of Managed Aquifer Recharge with River Water

Integrated assessment and management of water resources for the supply of potable water is increasingly important in light of projected water scarcity in many parts of the world. This article develops frameworks for regional-level waterborne human health risk assessment of chemical and microbiological contamination to aid water management, incorporating economic aspects of health risks. Managed aquifer recharge with surface water from a river in Southern Finland is used as an illustrative case. With a starting point in watershed governance, stakeholder concerns, and value-at-risk concepts, we merge common methods for integrative health risk analysis of contaminants to describe risks and impacts dynamically and broadly. This involves structuring analyses along the risk chain: sources-releases-environmental transport and fate-exposures-health effects-socio-economic impacts-management responses. Risks attributed to contaminants are embedded in other risks, such as contaminants from other sources, and related to benefits from improved water quality. A set of models along this risk chain in the case is presented. Fundamental issues in the assessment are identified, including 1) framing of risks, scenarios, and choices; 2) interaction of models and empirical information; 3) time dimension; 4) distributions of risks and benefits; and 5) uncertainties about risks and controls. We find that all these combine objective and subjective aspects, and involve value judgments and policy choices. We conclude with proposals for overcoming conceptual and functional divides and lock-ins to improve modeling, assessment, and management of complex water supply schemes, especially by reflective solution-oriented interdisciplinary and multi-actor deliberation.

The prevalence of asthma among inhabitants in the vicinity of a polyurethane factory in Finland.

Because toluene diisocyanate (TDI) is a strong sensitizer for asthma among workers in polyurethane factories, it is mostly extracted from the factory premises. The influence of such emissions on the prevalence of asthma among the people living in the vicinity of a polyurethane factory in Kouvola, Southern Finland, was studied through a questionnaire survey sent to 6807 persons living around the factory and in a control area; of these 4182 (61%) responded. In the study area near the factory there were 68 cases of asthma out of 3153 respondents (2.2%). In the control area there were 25 cases out of 1029 respondents (2.4%). The difference is insignificant (chi 2 = 0.27). Among the middle-aged the prevalence was significantly higher in the control area (chi 2 = 6.8). There was some indication of a lower asthma prevalence in the zone nearest to the factory, possibly due to its psychologically repellent effect on asthmatics, causing them to move away. Serum samples from 62 asthma patients out of 68 contacted (91%) were received and analyzed for TDI, HDI, and MDI. A positive result for the isocyanates was observed in only one patient who had been exposed in his occupation outside the factory. It was concluded that the polyurethane factory did not have a noticeable influence upon the prevalence of asthma in its surroundings.

Environmental justice for the governance of aquatic environments

ABSTRACT Environmental justice sheds light on the distributive and procedural aspects of planning and decision-making. We examined the challenges arising from the perspective of environmental justice on multi-level and participatory environmental governance by exploring the governance of aquatic environments in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. We found three main challenges and potential responses to them. First, even though most of Helsinki’s shoreline is free and/or accessible by road and accordingly used actively by people for recreational purposes, many parts of the shoreline are perceived as inaccessible, reflecting a need to combine factual and perceived accessibility of aquatic environments in detail during the planning processes and to discuss reasons for possible discrepancies between these two. Second, there was a remarkable seasonal variation in the use of aquatic environments, so more attention should be paid to social-demographic factors explaining the distribution of the use of urban nature. Third, it seems to be difficult to capture the variety of perceptions of people and to integrate them into planning and decision-making processes even on a local scale, and this challenge is likely even more pronounced on higher levels of planning and governance. Thus, better integration of regional and local-scale planning procedures should be encouraged. Building on these observations, we conclude that integration of procedural and distributive environmental justice into the practices of the governance of aquatic environments could remarkably decrease unwanted trade-offs and potential conflicts in their use and management.