Assessing the hazards faced by workers and the local community due to various industrial processes is an effort that requires extensive technical information. The risk assessor must accumulate and evaluate qualitative data regarding the nature of each industrial process being assessed. The information required to make a reasonable assessment includes (1) a knowledge of the workers' interactions with the process; (2) the chemicals emanating from the process; (3) the toxicological effects, and environmental fate, of these chemicals; the potential for, and the result of, the escape of these chemicals into the community environment through the air, water, or waste; (5) any physical hazards associated with the process (e.g., ionizing radiation); (6) and any effective risk reduction measures. Significant effort and investigative abilities are essential in obtaining this information. The process of competent environmental risk assessment is a skill learned by students in the Environmental Science curriculum. The database resources necessary to effectively research specific information about industrial processes and the associated risks are essential to the curriculum. It is essential that students are able to practice these skills in either laboratory scenarios or real-world projects. The Environmental Safety and Health Resource Laboratory being developed in this project consists of computers and CD-ROM/software databases. It is providing a variety of excellent resources from which specific environmental risk assessment searches can be launched. The laboratory is also serving as a significant resource to the local industrial community as students assist local environmental health and safety professionals in obtaining this critical information about processes in their facilities. *
