Section 125-H:2 Definitions. - New Hampshire Statutes

In this chapter:
   I. ""Acute health effect'' means an adverse health outcome or disease which manifests itself upon or shortly after exposure to an environmental hazard.
   II. ""Adverse health outcome'' means any condition which results in human morbidity, mortality, impaired reproductive function, toxicity, teratogenic, carcinogenic, or mutagenic effects.
   III. ""Chronic health effect'' means an adverse health outcome or disease which manifests itself over a long incubation or latency period. Chronic health effects can result from either a limited high-level or long-term, low-level exposure to an environmental hazard.
   IV. ""Commissioner'' means the commissioner of the department of health and human services.
   V. ""Department'' means the department of health and human services.
   VI. ""Dose-response assessment'' means the determination of the relation between the magnitude of exposure to environmental hazards and the probability of occurrence of adverse health effects.
   VII. ""Environmental hazard'' means any biological, chemical, or physical agent present in the environment which has the potential of causing disease or adverse health outcome.
   VIII. ""Environmental health risk assessment'' means the use of scientific and medical data to define potential health effects of exposure of individuals or populations to environmental hazards.
   IX. ""Exposure assessment'' means the determination of the extent of human exposure to an environmental hazard.
   X. ""Hazard identification'' means the scientific process of collecting and validating data to determine if biological, chemical or physical agents, man-made or naturally occurring, can be causally linked to particular chronic or acute health effects.
   XI. ""Imminent health hazard'' means the immediate threat to the population of an adverse health outcome posed by an environmental hazard.
   XII. ""Risk characterization'' means the description of the nature and, when possible, the magnitude of human risk from an environmental hazard, including its attendant uncertainty.
   XIII. ""Risk management'' means the use of the results of environmental health risk assessments or other information in order to develop and evaluate regulatory options, within a statutory framework, to reduce the risk of harm to human health and ecosystems to the greatest possible degree.

Source. 1986, 202:13. 1995, 310:75, eff. Nov. 1, 1995.