Section 7: Hazard and Risk of TRI Chemicals

Risk Trend and Corresponding Releases

RSEI also produces unitless risk “scores,” which represent relative chronic human health risk and can be compared to RSEI-generated scores from other years. RSEI scores are different from RSEI hazard estimates because they also consider the location of the release, its fate and transport through the environment, and the route and extent of potential human exposure.

This figure shows the trend in the RSEI score from 2003 through 2012. Over this time period the RSEI score decreased by 47%, while the corresponding pounds released over the same time period decreased by 40%. These results, when considered along with the RSEI hazard trend, suggest that the RSEI score is going down not because of reduced toxicity, but rather because of reduced exposure modeled in RSEI. This may be a result of where the chemical waste is released or how it is being released, such as a shift in the release media.

This page was published in January 2015 and uses the 2013 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2014.