Risk Science, Health, and Safety Research

For more than two decades, the U.S. EPA and other clients in the federal government have turned to us for risk science, health and safety research support — especially risk assessments. Our risk assessments have been used by EPA’s drinking water program, its other water programs, and its hazardous waste and nanotechnology programs. Cadmus staff members have been key contributors to the risk assessments conducted for every major drinking water regulation in the past 20 years.

We provide technical expertise in all the key components of the risk assessment process:

• Hazard identification: Evaluating toxicology and epidemiology data to identify the critical adverse health affects individuals may suffer after being exposed to chemicals or microbes in the environment.
• Exposure assessment: Gauging the likelihood that someone will be exposed to an environmental contaminant and how much of a chemical or microbe in the environment may enter a person’s body.
• Dose-response assessment: Evaluating the probability that persons will suffer a specific adverse effect based on the magnitude of their exposure to the chemicals or microbes of concern.
• Risk characterization: Integrating hazard identification with the exposure and dose-response assessments to arrive at quantitative estimates of the key risks posed in terms of cases of illness or mortality.

The sophisticated statistical and computational tools — including probabilistic methods involving Monte Carlo and Bayesian techniques — we use in our risk assessments help us account for the variability and uncertainty inherent in the risk assessment process.