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The control of environmental risks from chemical substances is strengthened whenever a new type of pollution is discovered. However, one after another, new countermeasures are required to keep up with the increasing complexity and proliferation of pollution from chemical substances. As an area of research to support the government's measures to deal with chemical substances in response to these kinds of needs, the Research Center for Environmental Risk was created when NIES became an independent administrative institution.

Research on environmental risk assessment and risk management techniques,
and support for policy development.

In order to manage environmental risk properly, it is essential to assess risk accurately. The environmental risk of chemical substances is assessed separately for human health and ecosystem risks. The assessment involves an a combination of two assessments: an exposure assessment of the amount of exposure to the substances, and dose-response assessment that takes into account the level of toxicity of the substances. The Center develops new techniques necessary for such types of assessments, and proposes new risk management approaches using the assessments.

One characteristic of pollution from chemical substances is that once an environment becomes polluted it is difficult to clean. Because of this, despite the fact that scientific knowledge is still incomplete, an enormous need exists to take preventive approach. However, in order to make proper judgements despite the remaining scientific uncertainties, some form of social consensus is required. In order to achieve an acceptable form of consensus, it is important for people to share the knowledge available at a given point in time, and it is essential that the knowledge be understood correctly. The Center is studying approaches to convey information relating to chemical substances in an easy-to-understand format, and is promoting social consensus-building relating to environmental risk from chemical substances, by using those approaches to convey information.

Research on environmental risk assessment and risk management techniques, and support for policy development.

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