Documents
Generic Risk Assessment Framework for Organisms
This conceptual discussion paper proposes a generic framework for the environmental risk assessment (ERA) of organisms including a set of generic risk factors based on biological attributes of organisms and bio-physical characteristics of interactions of organisms with the environment.
The genesis of this paper involved comparisons of ERA for GMOs with risk assessment approaches for other organisms in a variety of contexts (e.g. weed risk assessment) to identify commonalities and it has subsequently been informed by literature from a range of regulatory and scientific ‘disciplines’. The paper does not purport to have exhaustively reviewed the literature for all types of assessments of organisms but has sought to identify and reference relevant publications.
It is hoped that this concept paper may be useful for/inform the thinking of risk assessors of organisms other than GMOs. It is also hoped that it might contribute to ongoing dialogue, exchange of ideas, improve clarity of communication between risk assessors of various organisms.