NEPA, EPA and risk assessment: Has EPA lost its way?

The EPA risk assessment practice denies the inclusion of beneficial responses in the evaluation process. This practice represents a marked deviation from the original guidelines set forth within NEPA, which required the integrated goal of environmental protection as including both a reduction in risk as well as an enhancement of health benefit. It is time for regulatory agencies such as EPA to incorporate both harm and benefit within its risk assessment process. ⺠EPA’s risk assessment process needs to incorporate benefit as well as harm. ⺠The NEPA act provided a frame work for the incorporation of benefits within the risk assessment process. ⺠The hormetic response is the only dose response that is able to incorporate benefit and harm.