(a) Any health or ecological risk assessment prepared in conjunction with a response action taken or approved pursuant to this part shall be based upon Subpart E of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (40 C.F.R. 300.400 et seq.), the policies, guidelines, and practices of the United States Environmental Protection Agency developed pursuant to the federal act, and the most current sound scientific methods, knowledge, and practices of public health and environmental professionals who are experienced practitioners in the fields of epidemiology, risk assessment, environmental contamination, ecological risk, fate and transport analysis, and toxicology.
(b) Risk assessment practices shall include the most current sound scientific methods for data evaluation, exposure assessment, toxicity assessment, and risk characterization, documentation of all assumptions, methods, models, and calculations used in the assessment.
(c) Any health risk assessment shall include all of the following:
(1) Evaluation of risks posed by acutely toxic hazardous substances based on levels at which no known or anticipated adverse effects on health will occur, with an adequate margin of safety.
(2) Evaluation of risks posed by carcinogens or other hazardous substances that may cause chronic disease based on a level that does not pose any significant risk to health.
(3) Consideration of possible synergistic effects resulting from exposure to, or interaction with, two or more hazardous substances.
(4) Consideration of the effect of hazardous substances upon subgroups that comprise a meaningful portion of the general population, including, but not limited to, infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly, individuals with a history of serious illness, or other subpopulations, that are identifiable as being at greater risk of adverse health effects due to exposure to hazardous substances than the general population.
(5) Consideration of exposure and body burden level that alter physiological function or structure in a manner that may significantly increase the risk of illness and of exposure to hazardous substances in all media, including, but not limited to, exposures in drinking water, food, ambient and indoor air, and soil.
(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 257, Sec. 2. (AB 2293) Effective January 1, 2023. Operative January 1, 2024, pursuant to Sec. 4 of Stats. 2022, Ch. 257.)