In risk assessment, differentiate between hazard identification and dose-response assessment.

• A. Hazard identification determines whether a substance can cause adverse effects in a given exposure scenario.
• B. Dose-response assesses economic costs.
• C. Hazard identification tests toxicity across dose levels.
• D. Dose-response assessments identify chemical properties.

Answer: (A)

The key idea is understanding what each step asks: hazard identification is about whether a substance has the potential to cause adverse health effects under plausible exposure conditions. It focuses on the existence of a hazard, not on how much exposure causes harm. Dose-response assessment, on the other hand, examines how the probability or severity of those adverse effects changes with different doses, helping to define thresholds and inform safe exposure levels.

The correct description reflects hazard identification as determining if a substance can cause adverse effects in a given exposure scenario. The other statements mix up roles: economic costs are not evaluated in dose-response assessment, hazard identification does not test toxicity across dose levels (that’s the job of dose-response analysis), and dose-response assessments do not identify chemical properties (that’s chemical characterization).