Radioactive Waste: Any waste that
emits energy as rays, waves, or streams of energetic particles. Radioactive
materials are often mixed with hazardous waste, usually from nuclear reactors,
research institutions, or hospitals.
Radon: A colorless, naturally occurring
gas formed by radioactive decay of radium atoms. Radon accumulating in basements
and other areas of buildings without proper ventilation has been identified as a
leading cause of lung cancer.
Recycle: Minimizing waste generation by
recovering and reprocessing waste into usable products that might otherwise
become waste (e.g., recycling of aluminum cans, paper, and bottles, etc.).
Red Tide: A proliferation of a marine
plankton toxic and often fatal to fish, perhaps stimulated by the addition of
nutrients. A tide can be red, green, or brown, depending on the coloration of
the plankton.
Release: Any spilling, leaking, pumping,
pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching,
dumping, or disposing into the environment of a hazardous or toxic chemical or
extremely hazardous substance.
Remediation: Cleanup or other methods used
to remove or contain a toxic spill or hazardous materials from a Superfund site
Risk Assessment: A qualitative or
quantitative evaluation of the environmental and/or health risk resulting from
exposure to a chemical or physical agent (pollutant); combines exposure
assessment results with toxicity assessment results to estimate risk.
Risk Factor: Something that increases the
likelihood of cancer.
Risk Management: Decisions about whether
an assessed risk is sufficiently high to present a public health concern and
about the appropriate means for control of a risk judged to be significant. The
process of evaluating and selecting alternative regulatory and non-regulatory
responses to risk. The selection process necessarily requires the consideration
of legal, economic, and behavioral factors.
Risk: A measure of the probability that
damage to life, health, property, and/or the environment will occur as a result
of a given hazard.
Route of Exposure: The avenue by which a
chemical comes into contact with an organism (e.g., inhalation, ingestion,
dermal contact, injection).
