Chapter 1: General Aspects – Current and Future Perspectives Check Access

Environmental risk assessment is a scientific practice that identifies and evaluates the likelihood of an activity or substance to threaten the environment in general, and/or living organisms, natural habitats and ecosystems, in particular. It is a term used to describe the overall process or method allowing (a) the identification of hazards and risk factors that have the potential to cause harm and (b) the analysis and evaluation of the risk associated with that particular hazard. It also suggests all the appropriate ways to eliminate or minimize the hazard, or control the risk when the hazard cannot be eliminated. This book covers many non-traditional marsupial and placental mammalian species employed to analyse the jeopardising effects of environmental pollutants, as well as examples of applications of models in integrated assessment solutions. We hope that this book will provide answers or at least provide some clues to the inherent potential risk of the presence of these xenobiotics in our environment. This book aims to shed some light on the matter, whilst offering relevant tools for evaluating risk and providing a framework of practical discussions. These will foster decisions and actions required to reduce environmental health risks against environmental factors. This book presents some real-life examples, extending concepts (of hazardous factors) to living species that may stimulate new research ideas and trends in the relevant fields.