Hazard Identification

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-012889",
  "term": "Hazard Identification",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. The process of determining whether exposure to a stressor can cause an increase in the incidence or severity of a particular adverse effect, and whether an adverse effect is likely to occur.\n\n2. Hazard identification (http://www.epa.gov/risk/hazardous-identification.htm) examines whether a stressor has the potential to cause harm to humans and/or ecological systems, and if so, under what circumstances.\n\n3. Determining if a chemical or a microbe can cause adverse health effects in humans and what those effects might be.\n\n4. Detection of an adverse biological effect, or precursor to an adverse effect, as a result of exposure to a substance.\n\n5. The process of determining whether exposure to an agent can cause a particular adverse health effect (e.g., cancer, birth defect) and whether the adverse health effect is likely to occur in humans at environmentally relevant doses.\n\n6. The identification of known or potential health effects associated with a particular agent.\n\n7. Process of recognizing that a hazard exists and defining its characteristics.\n\n8. The process of determining whether exposure to an agent can cause a particular adverse health effect (e.g., cancer, birth defect) and whether the adverse health effect is likely to occur in humans at environmentally relevant doses. [EPA 2004]\n\n9. Determining if a chemical or a microbe can cause adverse health effects in humans and what those effects might be. [EPA 2005b]\n\n10. The identification of biological, chemical, and physical agents capable of causing adverse health effects and which may be present in a particular food or group of foods. [CAC 1999, CAC 2003, FAO/WHO 2003b]\n\n11. The identification of known or potential health effects associated with a particular agent. [FDA 2002]\n\n12. The identification of the type and nature of adverse effects that an agent has as inherent capacity to cause in an organism, system or (sub) population. Hazard identification is the first stage in hazard assessment and the first step in the process of Risk Assessment. [IPCS/OECD 2004]\n\n13. The identification of microbiological biological agents capable of causing adverse health effects and which may be present in water. [KIWA 2004]\n\n14. The determination of whether a particular substance (e.g., chemical, microbiological, or physical element) or particular activity (skiing, climbing a ladder, etc.) is or is not causally linked to particular health, safety, environmental or ecological effects. Hazard identification is a qualitative description based on factors such as kind and quality of data on humans or laboratory animals, the availability of information from other studies (e.g., similarity to other chemicals, viruses or physical hazards) and the weight of the evidence from all of these data sources. [NYS 1998]\n\n15. The process of determining whether exposure to an agent can cause an increase in the incidence of a health condition. [RAIS 2004, SRA 2004]",
  "subject": "Science and research",
  "references": [
    "Waste and Cleanup Risk Assessment Glossary",
    "Risk Assessment Glossary",
    "Terms of Environment; EPA 2005b",
    "Benchmark Dose Software (BMDS) Glossary of Terms",
    "EPA 2004",
    "FDA 2002",
    "Safety, Health, and Environmental Management System Terms and Definitions; SHEMS Terms and Definitions",
    "Thesaurus of Terms Used in Microbial Risk Assessment"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/hazard-identification/"
}