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Human Health Risk Assessment

The Human Health Risk Assessment Program (HHRA) plays a unique role in serving the needs of EPA programs by incorporating, integrating and coordinating the use of scientific information as a foundation for regulatory decision-making. HHRA provides state-of-the-science, independently peer reviewed human health assessments for individual chemicals and for chemical mixtures.

Research Focus Areas

Four complementary and integrated areas comprise the Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) research program:

  • Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) health hazard and dose-response assessments
    EPA's HHRA program prepares peer reviewed, qualitative and quantitative health hazard assessments on environmental pollutants of major relevance to EPA's regulatory mandates.  EPA Program and Regional Offices use these assessments to support their decision-making.  The Agency disseminates the assessments to the public on the IRIS Internet database. 

    EPA and the risk assessment/ risk management community consider IRIS the premier source of hazard and dose-response information for environmental pollutants. EPA released a revised IRIS process in May 2009 to streamline and accelerate completion of these critical science assessments. As of January 2011, more than 550 health hazard assessments were available through IRIS.

  • Integrated Science Assessments (ISAs)
    Congress requires that EPA regularly summarize the state-of-the-science for the six criteria air pollutants—ozone, particulate matter, sulfur and nitrous oxides, carbon monoxide, and lead—to assist EPA's Office of Air and Radiation in developing the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS).  These ISAs (formerly Air Quality Criteria Documents) are major risk assessments that undergo rigorous external peer review by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC).  EPA released a revised NAAQS review process in May 2009 to speed up the delivery of these critical science assessments and the development of the supporting documents for NAAQS. Since then, ISAs in varying stages of review have been released; for example, a first draft of the ozone ISA was released in February 2011 and lead in May 2011.

  • Methods, Models and Approaches to Modernize Risk Assessment Science
    The goal of this research is to provide the scientific basis to assess pollutants in ways that are environmentally sustainable, cost effective, and innovative. High quality risk assessments require state-of-the-art methods.  HHRA assessments incorporate contemporary scientific advances to develop methods and models to enhance their quality and objectivity.  In addition, they support decision-making by EPA's Program and Regional Offices.  These scientific products receive external peer review, and EPA disseminates them through the published literature and EPA websites.

  • Community Risk Program (CRP)
    The CRP would institutionalize response capability, offering coordinated assistance to the Emergency Response and Superfund programs to ensure EPA is able to assess and address crisis-level issues of chemical contamination in communities.  CRP would directly impact the regions, improving their ability to quickly find technical assistance within EPA.  Importantly, the ability of the CRP to respond quickly will ensure that decision-makers in the regions have the tools they need to address a community's concerns. The CRP would provide provisional peer reviewed toxicity values (PPRTVs) with less than life-time assessment values, rapid risk assessments, which include state-of-the-art exposure information, and tools with hazard information. Ultimately, this program will provide timely advise, assessments and tools to assist EPA in protecting the public's health and cleaning up contaminated communities, key to EPA's mission and one of its strategic goals. 

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