Glossary
Polluted sites and soils: initial assessment of soil and groundwater pollution

Target

Targets are users of or in contact with the environment. This term includes the entire living chain. For humans, the common modes of exposure are inhalation, skin contact and ingestion (direct – water, soil – or indirect – plant or animal food).

Risk assessment

This is a process for measuring the level of risk associated with the combination of three factors: the pollution source, the pollutant migration vector and the exposed target. This assessment is based on regulatory management values set in the various exposure environments, or on a quantified evaluation based on the Reference Toxicity Values of the various pollutants for the different exposure routes available in internationally recognized toxicological databases.

Environment

There are four media to...