How NIOSH Conducts Risk Assessments
This document explains how NIOSH conducts occupational risk assessments:
Current Intelligence Bulletin 69: NIOSH Practices in Occupational Risk Assessment.
NIOSH prioritizes chemicals for risk assessment by evaluating the needs of key stakeholders and partners such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), organized labor, industry, and National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) sector councils. NIOSH also considers factors such as how much of the chemical is used in the workplace, how much potential there is for worker exposure, and the severity of the health effects. This includes an evaluation of the available scientific information on the hazard and its associated injury or disease.
NIOSH has a three-step process for conducting occupational risk assessments: identifying the hazard, assessing the exposure-response relationship and characterizing the workplace risk.
