RISK 21: an innovative approach for human risk assessment and its application in occupational exposure to plant protection products in viticulture

RISK21 (Risk Assessment in the 21st Century, www.risk21.org) is an initiative developed by the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) aimed at proposing a transparent and efficient scientific approach for the assessment of human risk deriving from exposure to chemical compounds. It is a result of six years of work that involved a broad group of experts from academia, industries, government authorities and non-governmental organizations from Europe and North America. The ultimate goal of RISK21 was to create a simple application, flexible, accurate and resources- based tool for human risk assessment. The added value of RISK21 conceptual risk assessment framework consists on problem formulation which guides the assessor in defining data, tools and procedures for decision taking and finalization of the evaluation. Exposure is assessed soon after problem formulation in order to guide the evaluation making an efficient use of all available information. The allocation of additional resources to retrieve or generate further information, or to define a strategy to take a decision is carried out only if needed. The conceptual framework principles and approach of RISK21 have been extensively described and detailed by Embry et al. (2014) and Pastoor et al. (2014). The present work shows a case study aimed at emphasizing RISK21 potentiality by its application in regulatory tiered approach risk assessment of agricultural workers exposed to plant protection products (PPP) residues in viticulture.