Risk management of chemicals and contaminated land – from planning to verification - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 237

substance or technology, which has proved risky, with a new substance or technology
that has not yet been tested but is expected to be better based only on estimates.

2.1 Assessment phase of ERM
Assessment of the problem includes hazard identification, ERA of the chemical sub-
stance, mixtures, products, wastes or contaminated sites, or any other environmental
problem. A complex assessment tool is necessary to assess environmental and human
health risk, the economic and social situation, as well as aesthetic, cultural and ethical
issues.

2.1.1 Types of problems and their assessment

1 Identification of the hazards of physical agents, chemical substances, of biological,

geological origin, etc.;

2 Local assessment of the production and the use of chemical substances as well as

their waste phase, potential or real contaminated sites based on locally measured
data or data series (monitoring);

3 Watershed-scale assessment of the production, the use and waste phase of chem-

icals, contaminated land based on watershed-scale monitoring data, information
from statistical databases, default values and estimates;

4 Regional (e.g., European) assessment of production, use and waste phase of

chemical substances, environmental pollution such as atmospheric, aquatic, and
terrestrial deterioration and pollution as well as contaminated land based on
measured and statistical data, European default values, and European estimates;

5 Global assessment of chemical substances, environmental deterioration and (atmo-

spheric, aquatic, terrestrial) contamination based on measured and statistical data,
default values, and global estimates.

Tiered ERA is a step-wise procedure based on conservative estimates (using realis-
tic worst-case models) and on iterative approximation. The number of tiers should be
determined by optimization of costs and time requirement. The outcomes of the assess-
ment phase are identification of the problem, the sources, the quality and quantity of
the deteriorating agent or material, delineation of the impacted area, identification of
the transport paths, land uses, and the endangered land users (ecosystem and man).
From these pieces of information the resulting environmental, health, economic and
social risks, and all the consequences in the widest context (micro- and macroeconomy,
social welfare, etc.) can be calculated.

2.2 Assessment of the problem before implementing
a risk management measure
This section deals with the information necessary to obtain a true picture about an
environmental problem, deterioration or contamination caused by hazardous chemical
substances, products and wastes or by contaminated land and waste disposal sites. The
main impacts on environmental and human health, economic and social conditions
should be supplemented with cultural and ethical considerations. All these aspects
may contribute to the decisions within environmental management.