Which step of the risk assessment process integrates hazard information with exposure to estimate actual risk?

• A. Hazard identification happens after exposure assessment.
• B. Exposure assessment determines regulatory conclusions.
• C. Risk characterization integrates hazard and exposure to estimate risk and describe uncertainties.
• D. Point of departure is used to judge regulatory compliance.

Answer: (C)

The step that brings together what could cause harm with how much people are exposed is risk characterization. This stage takes the hazard information (how toxic or harmful something is) and combines it with exposure data (how, how much, and for whom exposure occurs) to estimate actual risk for a given scenario. It also describes uncertainties and variability in that estimate, indicating how confident we are and where gaps exist.

Hazard identification asks if a substance could cause harm, and hazard characterization describes the nature and magnitude of that harm (often through dose–response relationships). Exposure assessment quantifies the extent of contact with the hazard. Risk characterization then stitches these pieces together to say, for a real-world situation, what level of risk is present and how certain that estimate is. The other options either misplace the sequencing or describe steps that don’t directly provide the integrated risk estimate.