Pianoforte Training Course: KJM360 - Assessing Risk for Humans and the Environment

KJM360 gives students a grounding in the theory and skills needed to carry out environmental risk assessment for humans and non-human biota, including hands-on training in risk assessment tools and models, as well as practocal laboratory demonstrations and excercises. In addition to learning the basic theory and strengths of risk assessment and management, students are given insights into the assumptions, uncertainties and limitations of the tools and models. The central theme is environmental risk assessment, hence the course focuses on the exposure of humans to radionuclides in the environment, as well as the exposure of non-human biota to ionising radiation. The course does not cover worker or medical exposures in any great depth, although these themes are touched upon when the tools used are similar (e.g., radiation dose calculations and epidemiology). While the course concentrates on the approaches used in radiation risk assessment and management, it also covers the assessment of other chemicals and stressors. This provides nuclear science and radiation protection students with important insights into similarities and differences in risk assessment and management of ionising radiation as compared to other stressors. For environmental science students, it gives an opportunity to learn more about environmental risk assessment in general, using ionising radiation as a case study. Topics covered include international regulation and policy, risk communication and perception, data management, and social and ethical aspects of risk management. The course has previously attracted students of environmental science, ecology and nature management, as well as those from nuclear sciences, and is also popular with professionals (giving training certificates in assessment tools), thus offering important networking opportunities for students.