Principles and practices of health risk assessment under current EU regulations

Risk assessments serve as the foundation of regulatory decision-making on whether to take actions to reduce (or otherwise manage) a toxicological or ecotoxicological risk or not. To understand the complex process that leads from the generation of scientific data, via risk assessment to risk management decision-making, close studies of the scientific basis and risk assessment methods must be undertaken. This paper consists of two main parts. In the first part the principles of the European Union process for risk assessments, as defined by legislations and official guidelines, are briefly outlined. In the second part the actual workings of this system are exemplified by the results from case studies of the risk assessment processes for trichloroethylene and for acrylamide. The analysis and comparison of these two cases illustrates: (1) that generation of a large amount of data does not ensure consensus among risk assessors, (2) that controversy can regard different levels of detail, (3) that controversy can arise at different organizational and theoretical levels, (4) that risk assessments may be subject to (public) criticism even if the experts agree, and (5) that “scientific” controversies have a significant policy component.