Private and public institutions, agencies, and companies anticipate risks and uncertainties as they conduct their daily operations. The risks and uncertainties are more realistic for institutions that are restricted by the existing environmental policy or those that deal with human health. Environmental policies tend to cover various areas of business operations and they are dependent on the type of the institution as well as its definitive processes and procedures. On the other hand, human health is prone to various risks and the concerned stakeholders must engage in risk assessment activities to enhance health outcomes. Institutions that deal with human health must adhere to numerous policies to ensure that the public is not prone to future uncertainties and risks. Risk assessment tools are crucial aspects that are used to determine risks and uncertainties in terms of their nature and extent. The most common risk assessment tool used to determine the nature of risks is a risk matrix that defines the level of various risks. Risk assessment refers to the process of identifying risk factors, analyzing and evaluating these risks, and finally determining appropriate ways of controlling or eliminating the identified risks (Jansen et al., 2017). Institutions ought to assess and determine the extent of risks before introducing new processes, when initiating changes and when hazards are identified to mitigate losses and bottlenecks. The federal government is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that its citizens have access to quality healthcare services. In line with this mandate, the federal government works with various agencies to access human health risk factors. The primary agency that collaborates with the federal government in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to EPA (2016), human health risk assessment helps to estimate the probability and nature of health effects if humans are exposed to an environment that is contaminated. Human health risk assessment is a four-step approach where the hazard is identified, dose-response assessment is conducted, exposure is assessed, and finally, the risk is characterized. From here, the federal government can come up with policies to ensure that all other institutions adhere to environmental policies to improve health outcomes.
References
Jansen, T., Claassen, L., Poll, R. V., Kamp, I. V., Timmermans, D. R. M. (2017). Breaking down uncertain risks for risk communication: A conceptual review of the environmental health literature. Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy , 9(1), 233-260. https://doi.org/10.1002/rhc3.12128
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The US Environmental Protection Agency. (2016, October 3). Human Health Risk Assessment . https://www.epa.gov/risk/human-health-risk-assessment