A risk-based methodology for ranking environmental chemical stressors at the regional scale.

A “Risk-based Tool for the Regional Ranking of Environmental Chemical Stressors” has been developed, aimed at supporting decision-makers in the identification of priority environmental contaminants, as well as priority areas, to be further assessed. The tool implements a methodology based on a quantitative Weight-of-Evidence approach, integrating three types of information, identified as “Lines-of-Evidence” (LoE), namely: LoE “Environmental Contamination” (including data on chemical contamination in environmental matrices in the region, thus providing information on potential population exposure), LoE “Intake” (including results from human biomonitoring studies, i.e. concentration of chemicals in human biological matrices, thus providing an integrated estimation of exposure) and LoE “Observed Effects” (including information on the incidence of adverse health outcomes associated with environmental exposure to chemicals).