Setting Up Risk

SADA provides a human health risk assessment module to calculate the risk of adverse health impacts on a population exposed to toxic chemicals found in groundwater, surfacewater, soil, and sediment. It also calculates risk-based screening values to quickly identify contaminants of concern. These results are integrated into the other modules, such as cost benefit analysis, geospatial analysis, and secondary sampling schemes.

Before this module can be implemented, the user must provide the correct media identification for the data when creating a SADA file. Without media identification, SADA will not be able to setup this module. Furthermore, SADA expects the measurement units for radionuclides to be in pCi/g for Soil/Sediment and pCi/L for Surfacewater/Groundwater. Units for nonradionuclides must be in mg/kg for Soil/Sediment and mg/L for Surfacewater/Groundwater. See Data Requirements. In addition, the user must have a toxicological database and a scenario parameter database to associate with the data. SADA provides two such databases called ToxicologicalProfiles.mdb and ScenarioParameters.mdb; the user may customize these databases in Microsoft Access. During the risk module setup, SADA will extract relevant information from these databases to incorporate in the SADA file. SADA will not use the databases again unless prompted; however, the information extracted from the databases may be edited within SADA. Note: this does not affect the external risk databases.

To initiate the Risk Setup Wizard, select Human Health Risk from the Setup menu of the main window.

In order to setup the risk module, SADA needs the names of the supporting toxicological profiles and scenario parameters databases. The toxicological database contains health related information about individual contaminants. The scenario database contains parameters regarding the human receptor exposure patterns.

SADA contains default databases. The ToxicologicalProfiles.mdb comes from Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Risk Assessment Information System (RAIS). This toxicological database is maintained regularly, and recent versions of the database can be downloaded from the SADA home page in a SADA compatible format. The toxicity values were compiled from EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) and Health Effects Assessment Summary Tables (HEAST), derived from values found in these EPA sources, or provided after contacting EPA. After a risk module has been setup, errors or small updates to toxicity values can be handled through the Toxicological Links menu.

The scenario parameters database, ScenarioParameters.mdb, contains default parameters established for the Oak Ridge Reservation and may need customizing for your particular site.

In the following window, type the name of the corresponding databases or press Browse to select. Once these have been selected, press Next >> to continue.

SADA now attempts to match each contaminant in your file with a contaminant found in the toxicological database. If available, SADA searches by CAS number first and then by name. If the CAS number and name match exactly, SADA classifies it as Matched. If only the Name or the CAS number match, then the classification is Partial Match. Finally, if no match is found for either, the classification is No Match. These three classifications are presented in the Contaminant Identification Results window.

On the left side of the window, your contaminants have been divided into each of these three categories. To view a resulting match for any contaminant, click on the down arrow and select your contaminant from the resulting drop down list. The corresponding selection on the right hand side will change to show SADA’s match for your contaminant. If the match is acceptable, press the Register button. If all matches within a category are acceptable, press All. To unregister a matched pair(s), select the pair(s) in the registered contaminants box and press Unregister. Your contaminants will return to their original classification with their original match.

If no match is available for some of your contaminants, you may leave them as unregistered. Later, if the toxicological information becomes available, you may link these contaminants (or re-link registered contaminants) separately without setting up the entire risk module again. See Toxicological Links.

Press Next>> to conclude setting up the risk module. Once the module is complete, Human Health analysis will appear in the analysis combo box on the secondary toolbar. Additionally, a Human Health menu will be visible in SADA when this analysis is selected from the combo box.

You may reset the Risk module at any time; simply select Human Health Risk under the Setup menu of the main window. The process is the same as before; however, SADA will give you the opportunity to reset or skip the toxicological and scenario parameter component identification.