The following information appears in a box on page 26 of the printed report. Ecological Risk Assessment and Risk Management Human and ecological health are intimately connected.
Ecosystems are crucial to human survival and well-being.
Many environmental problems, such as global climate change and hormonally active contaminants, pose an inseparable combination of health and ecological risks. While many of our laws were intended to protect simultaneously human and ecological health, ecological risk assessment has long been eclipsed by human health risk assessment. In recent years, however, we have begun to recognize the importance of directly protecting ecosystems, rather than indirectly protecting them through measures taken to improve human health. Although the techniques for ecological risk assessment differ somewhat from those of traditional human health risk assessment, the Commission's Framework is designed to be flexible enough to accommodate both. Go to section in which this sidebar appears in printed publication.