In fact, most of the highly precautionary laws and regulations currently on the books include some form of risk assessment that error on the side of caution, building in a host of safety factors that substantially overestimate exposure to justify regulatory actions that may not be necessary.
Green said the office is recommending two further types of tests: comprehensive medical evaluations of employees still suffering from health problems and a workplace exposureassessment to determine if chemical by-products present in mail, or other factors, could pose serious health risks.
Core research areas addressed in the 2011 strategy include: nanomaterial measurement, human exposureassessment, human health, environment, risk assessment and management, and the new core area of predictive modeling and informatics.