Submitted by Claire Wells on
NMBU Course: Assessing Risk to Humans and the Environment
Course Aims and Overview
The aim of the course is to give students a grounding in the theory and skills needed to carry out environmental risk assessment for humans and non-human organisms. This will include hands-on training in some of the risk assessment tools and models. 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 main focus is 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, although these themes are touched upon when the tools used are similar (e.g., radiation dose calculations and epidemiology). The course concentrates on the approaches used in radiation risk assessment and management, but 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. Topics covered include risk assessment approaches, international regulation and policy, risk communication and perception, and social and ethical aspects of risk management. It is open to students of environmental science, ecology and nature management, as well as those from nuclear sciences. Professionals may also all or parts of the course, for example to obtain certification in assessment tool training.
Course Dates: 9-16th June 2017, NMBU, Norway
Application Deadline: 30 April 2017
Course Flyer: Here
Further information and application for the course: deborah.oughton@nmbu.no