Virtually every aspect of life involves risk. How we deal with risk depends largely on how well we understand it. The members of the American Cleaning Institute are committed to the enhancement of human health and quality of life through the responsible formulation, production and sale of cleaning products and ingredients. To that end members have committed to only market products that have been shown to be safe for humans and the environment, through careful consideration of the potential health and environmental effects, exposures and releases that will be associated with their production, transportation, use and disposal.

A primary tool for assessing the safety of ingredients and products is risk assessment. Risk assessment is used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), other federal and state agencies, industry, and others to evaluate potential health risks posed by harmful chemicals found in the environment. Risk assessments inform a wide range of regulatory and technology decisions from protecting air and water to ensuring the safety of food, drugs, and consumer products such as toys. EPA uses the risk assessment process that was set forth in the 1983 National Research Council report known as “the Red Book”, and the same principles are the basis for chemical risk assessment by industry and other government organizations.

Risk assessment describes what research findings do and do not tell us about threats to human health and the environment. There are four steps in the process—hazard identification, exposure assessment, dose-response assessment, and risk characterization—which were defined in the “Red Book.” After a risk assessment is complete, decision makers use it to determine the extent to which management of chemical risks (exposures and hazards) are necessary.

The American Cleaning Institute has been actively engaged in applying and developing new risk assessment methodologies as science advances. ACI and its members will continue to be engaged stakeholders as the science of the 21st century is applied to chemical management policy around the globe.

Read about the Center for Advancing Risk Assessment Science & Policy