Integrating risk management and risk communication into a risk assessment of a Medfly eradication project in California

Health officials are increasingly recognizing that a successful approach to assess and manage health-related issues associated with human exposure to environmental chemicals is to integrate risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication procedures in an overall process to address the specific concerns. The way that risk assessment, risk communication, and risk management were integrated into one project, particularly with the use of an external advisory committee, is described in this article. In 1990, the California Department of Health Services (DHS) evaluated the public health risk of the aerial application of a malathion-bait mixture for eradicating a Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) infestation in the greater Los Angeles basin. The department had performed a risk assessment in 1980 on a similar eradication project and had conducted several related epidemiological studies, all of which indicated no adverse health effects from the aerial spraying. However, due to continued concerns about public health and at the request of the executive and legislative branches of state government, DHS prepared a new risk assessment that incorporated review of new scientific studies and the latest risk assessment techniques. As it had done with excellent results in 1980, DHS again convened an external advisory committee. The committee's primary purpose was to provide oversight and quality assurance of the risk assessment, but it also became a forum for risk communication and risk management recommendations.