This June marked the 28th edition of the Laurentian SETAC Conference, an event that aims to promote and enhance communication, education, and networking in environmental toxicology and chemistry.
On its opening day, our toxicologist and risk assessor Andrea Amendola co-facilitated a short course ideal for students, new graduates, and early career professionals on conceptual site models and problem formulations.
As a blueprint for risk assessments, the problem formulation provides the objectives, framework, and approach for a risk assessment, identifying the contaminants of concern, human and/or ecological receptors, and exposure pathways.
The course was delivered as lectures and breakout sessions where participants put the concepts into practice. Where the first part focused on the human health problem formulation, the second leaned into the ecological problem formulation. Both are relevant to the Ontario Regulation 153/04 Risk Assessment Framework.