Risk Assessment of Mixtures of Chemical Pollutants in the Environment

Abstract

Environmental contamination problems are complex issues with worldwide implications. Risks to human and ecological health as a result of toxic compounds and their introduction into the environment is a matter of great interest to modern society. Ecological risk assessment and the human health risk assessment are the two related activities of which the environmental risk assessment is comprised. Mixtures of pollutants can contain all type of chemicals: organic, inorganic, organometallic in gaseous, liquid or solid state. This paper presents the steps to be carried out in order to perform the risk assessment for environment and human health. Exposure assessment is detailed by the presentation of original results obtained in studies concerning the determination of bioconcentration factors (BCF) of six metals (cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel and silver) in the Romanian Black Sea coast, sediments and marine biota, during 2003–2006. The reported BCF allow concluding that at the moment there is no pollution concern in the studied area.