Environmental Health Risk Assessment Training Course

Duration 10 days 21 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Environmental Health Officers, HSE Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EM-122

Before you join: Participants should have basic familiarity with environmental management, workplace health and safety, public health, engineering, chemistry or environmental science.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Environmental health decisions often must be made before all data are available. A contaminated groundwater source, emissions from an industrial process, pesticide residues near housing, or poor indoor air quality can create plausible health concerns, regulatory exposure and community scrutiny. Environmental health risk assessment provides a disciplined basis for deciding what requires action, what further evidence is needed, which populations need protection, and how risks should be communicated without overstating certainty.

This course develops the technical and decision-making skills required to assess environmental hazards affecting human health. Participants define assessment questions, build conceptual site models, identify receptors and exposure pathways, evaluate toxicological and epidemiological evidence, estimate exposure, select toxicity values, characterise risk and document uncertainty. The course addresses chemical, physical and biological hazards, with applied cases involving contaminated land, drinking water, air emissions, waste facilities and community exposure concerns. Participants also examine risk management options, regulatory reporting, stakeholder communication and quality assurance.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with worked calculations, case analysis, facilitated group reviews, risk communication simulations and structured application planning. From the first week, participants build components of an environmental health risk assessment using realistic site information, monitoring data and exposure assumptions. They leave with a completed risk assessment package, including a problem formulation, conceptual site model, exposure assessment worksheets, risk characterisation and risk management recommendations.

The course is suited to HSE professionals, environmental specialists, public health personnel, engineers, consultants and managers who need to evaluate potential human-health effects from environmental conditions or operational activities.

What you will be able to do

  • Define environmental health risk assessment questions using problem formulation and receptor analysis
  • Construct conceptual site models linking sources, pathways, receptors and exposure routes
  • Calculate chronic and acute chemical exposures using standard exposure-factor methods
  • Evaluate toxicological, epidemiological and environmental monitoring evidence for decision relevance
  • Characterise cancer and non-cancer risks using toxicity values and risk metrics
  • Document uncertainty, variability and data limitations within a defensible assessment report
  • Compare risk management options using exposure reduction, feasibility and residual-risk criteria
  • Present a complete environmental health risk assessment and recommendations to decision-makers

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence interpreting environmental monitoring results and exposure scenarios
  • Practical ability to prepare human-health risk assessment sections for technical reports
  • Improved judgement when selecting conservative but credible exposure assumptions
  • Stronger capability to explain risk findings to managers, regulators and communities
  • Reusable assessment materials for contaminated land, water and air-quality investigations

For your organisation

  • More consistent identification and prioritisation of environmental health risks
  • Better documented decisions on monitoring, remediation and exposure-control investments
  • Improved quality of risk assessment reports submitted to regulators and clients
  • Earlier recognition of vulnerable receptors and incomplete exposure pathways
  • Clearer communication of environmental health findings during incidents and consultations

Course modules

21 modules over 10 days

Participants can explain the purpose, boundaries and core stages of environmental health risk assessment.

  • Environmental health hazards distinguished from ecological and occupational safety hazards
  • Risk assessment, risk management and risk communication roles separated clearly
  • US EPA risk assessment framework and its four analytical stages
  • WHO principles for assessing environmental exposures and public-health outcomes
  • Hazard, exposure, dose and risk terminology applied consistently
  • Screening assessments distinguished from detailed site-specific risk assessments

Participants can frame a decision-focused assessment question and prepare an assessment plan.

  • Decision context translated into clear assessment objectives and endpoints
  • Problem formulation identifies hazards, receptors, pathways and decisions
  • Assessment boundaries set for location, period, population and media
  • Data quality objectives established using EPA DQO planning steps
  • Stakeholder concerns converted into answerable technical assessment questions
  • Assessment plans assign assumptions, evidence sources and review responsibilities

Participants can identify environmental hazards and judge their potential relevance to human health.

  • Chemical, biological and physical hazards classified by health mechanism
  • Contaminants of potential concern selected from site information
  • Source inventories examine processes, releases, wastes and historical uses
  • Safety data sheets interpreted for hazard classification and exposure relevance
  • Hazard screening compares measured concentrations against health-based benchmarks
  • Mixtures, degradation products and transformation pathways considered during screening

Participants can identify exposed populations and account for susceptibility and life-stage differences.

  • Receptor groups defined by location, behaviour, age and duration
  • Sensitive populations include children, pregnant people and older adults
  • Environmental justice considerations identify disproportionate exposure and vulnerability
  • Land-use information distinguishes residents, workers, visitors and subsistence users
  • Exposure factors selected for body weight, intake rates and activity
  • Receptor profiles document assumptions requiring local confirmation or refinement

Participants can build a conceptual site model linking sources, media, pathways and receptors.

  • Source-pathway-receptor diagrams map complete and potentially complete exposure routes
  • Site history informs likely contaminant release mechanisms and locations
  • Environmental media include soil, groundwater, surface water, sediment and air
  • Fate and transport processes explain contaminant movement between media
  • Pathway completeness tested using source, transport, contact and intake
  • Conceptual site models identify evidence gaps and sampling priorities

Participants can assess whether monitoring data are suitable for exposure and risk calculations.

  • Sampling objectives matched to conceptual site model uncertainties
  • Data validation checks detection limits, blanks, duplicates and holding times
  • Non-detect results handled using documented substitution or statistical methods
  • Spatial and temporal variability examined before selecting exposure concentrations
  • Outliers investigated through field records, laboratory flags and plausibility
  • Exposure point concentrations derived using appropriate averaging assumptions

Participants can interpret toxicological evidence and select relevant health endpoints for assessment.

  • Dose-response relationships distinguish threshold and non-threshold health effects
  • Toxicokinetics explains absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion processes
  • Critical effects identified from animal studies and human evidence
  • NOAEL, LOAEL and benchmark dose concepts compared for derivation
  • Uncertainty factors account for interspecies and intraspecies differences
  • Routes of exposure assessed for relevance to available toxicity values

Participants can select and document toxicity values appropriate to an exposure scenario.

  • Reference doses, reference concentrations and cancer slope factors defined
  • Toxicity values sourced from IRIS, ATSDR and authoritative databases
  • Chronic, subchronic and acute toxicity values matched to duration
  • Inhalation unit risks distinguished from oral cancer slope factors
  • Health-based screening levels interpreted without treating them as cleanup standards
  • Toxicity value selection documented with source, endpoint and rationale

Participants can structure an exposure assessment using route-specific exposure equations and assumptions.

  • Exposure assessment estimates contact between receptors and environmental contaminants
  • Exposure routes include ingestion, inhalation, dermal contact and food-chain intake
  • Average daily dose calculated from concentration, intake and exposure frequency
  • Chronic daily intake distinguishes lifetime averaging from exposure duration
  • Exposure assumptions aligned with receptor profile and site conditions
  • Central tendency and reasonable maximum exposure assumptions compared

Participants can estimate health exposures arising from contaminated soil, dust and surfaces.

  • Incidental soil ingestion rates selected by receptor age group
  • Dermal adherence and absorption factors applied to soil contact
  • Indoor dust and outdoor soil pathways assessed separately
  • Particle emission factors estimate windblown dust inhalation exposures
  • Surface wipe samples interpreted for hand-to-mouth exposure potential
  • Soil exposure calculations address residential, recreational and worker scenarios

Participants can estimate exposures from drinking water, surface water and contaminated food sources.

  • Drinking-water ingestion scenarios account for household use and life stages
  • Groundwater plume data linked to current and future receptor locations
  • Surface-water contact includes ingestion, dermal contact and incidental intake
  • Bioaccumulation factors estimate contaminant transfer into fish and produce
  • Local consumption surveys refine assumptions for subsistence receptor groups
  • Water treatment and point-of-use controls evaluated within exposure scenarios

Participants can assess inhalation exposures from ambient emissions and vapour intrusion.

  • Ambient air concentrations compared with health-based screening values
  • Emission source terms distinguish stacks, fugitive releases and area sources
  • Air dispersion model outputs interpreted for receptor-specific exposure estimates
  • Vapour intrusion pathways connect subsurface vapours to indoor air
  • Indoor-air sampling accounts for background sources and temporal variation
  • Inhalation exposure calculations apply breathing rates and occupancy patterns

Participants can appraise epidemiological evidence without confusing association, causation and exposure relevance.

  • Study designs include cohort, case-control, cross-sectional and ecological studies
  • Association measures include relative risk, odds ratio and incidence rate
  • Confounding, bias and chance assessed before drawing causal inferences
  • Exposure misclassification limits interpretation of community health studies
  • Bradford Hill considerations support structured causal inference discussions
  • Community health concerns integrated with monitoring and toxicological evidence

Participants can calculate and interpret non-cancer hazard quotients and hazard indices.

  • Hazard quotients compare estimated dose with reference dose values
  • Hazard indices combine pathway-specific risks for common target organs
  • Multiple contaminants grouped by shared health endpoint where justified
  • Acute and chronic hazard metrics interpreted against assessment objectives
  • Hazard quotient exceedance triggers refinement, not automatic harm conclusions
  • Non-cancer findings documented with assumptions, limitations and uncertainty

Participants can estimate lifetime cancer risk and explain its meaning and limitations.

  • Lifetime average daily dose calculated for carcinogenic exposure scenarios
  • Incremental lifetime cancer risk derived using cancer slope factors
  • Inhalation cancer risks calculated using unit risk estimates
  • Risk ranges compared with applicable regulatory decision criteria
  • Age-dependent adjustment factors considered for early-life carcinogen exposure
  • Cancer risk estimates presented without implying individual disease predictions

Participants can identify key uncertainties and test their influence on risk conclusions.

  • Variability distinguished from uncertainty in exposure and toxicity inputs
  • Uncertainty registers record evidence gaps, assumptions and directional bias
  • Sensitivity analysis tests influential concentrations, intake rates and durations
  • Scenario analysis compares current, future and reasonable maximum exposures
  • Conservative assumptions justified where site-specific evidence remains limited
  • Data gaps prioritised according to their effect on decisions

Participants can compare practical risk management options against exposure reduction objectives.

  • Risk management options target source, pathway and receptor controls
  • Hierarchy of controls adapted for environmental exposure reduction decisions
  • Remediation alternatives compare containment, removal, treatment and monitored attenuation
  • Institutional controls include land-use restrictions and groundwater-use limitations
  • Interim measures address urgent exposure concerns before final remediation
  • Residual risk evaluated after controls, monitoring and maintenance requirements

Participants can communicate environmental health risk findings clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.

  • Risk communication plans identify audiences, concerns, channels and timing
  • Plain-language messages explain exposure pathways, findings and protective actions
  • Numbers and risk comparisons presented with context and uncertainty
  • Community meetings prepared using anticipated questions and response protocols
  • Technical reports separate facts, assumptions, interpretations and recommendations
  • Stakeholder feedback captured and addressed within assessment documentation

Participants can organise a risk assessment to meet governance, review and reporting requirements.

  • Applicable laws, permits and guidance identified before assessment design
  • Regulatory screening values distinguished from risk-based site-specific criteria
  • Quality assurance plans define technical review and document control
  • Independent review tests calculations, assumptions and evidence traceability
  • Assessment records maintain data provenance and reproducible calculations
  • Decision logs document approvals, conditions and follow-up monitoring commitments

Participants can assemble assessment components into a coherent and technically defensible risk narrative.

  • Problem formulation checked against updated conceptual site model evidence
  • Exposure pathways reconciled with monitoring results and receptor assumptions
  • Toxicity selections reviewed for route, duration and endpoint alignment
  • Risk calculations checked using independent units and formula verification
  • Uncertainties ranked by their likely effect on management decisions
  • Recommendations linked directly to risk drivers and controllable sources

Participants can build, review and present a complete environmental health risk assessment with defensible recommendations.

  • Assessment scope defined from a realistic contamination or emissions scenario
  • Conceptual site model constructed for sources, pathways and receptors
  • Exposure and toxicity inputs selected with documented technical rationale
  • Cancer and non-cancer risks calculated for priority receptor groups
  • Risk management recommendations prioritised using residual-risk and feasibility criteria
  • Assessment findings presented for technical review and management decision

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Environmental health risk assessment plan template
  2. Source-pathway-receptor conceptual site model
  3. Route-specific exposure calculation workbook
  4. Toxicity value selection checklist
  5. Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis register
  6. Risk characterisation and management recommendation report

Who should attend

  • Environmental Health Officers — assess community and environmental exposures requiring public-health action
  • HSE Managers — prioritise environmental health risks and control measures within operations
  • Environmental Consultants — prepare defensible human-health risk assessments for clients and regulators
  • Environmental Engineers — evaluate health implications of emissions, waste and remediation options
  • Public Health Professionals — interpret environmental exposure evidence during investigations and planning
  • Site and Facilities Managers — manage contamination, water, air-quality and nuisance-related concerns

Skills and tools covered

Problem formulationExposure assessmentToxicity evaluationRisk characterisationUncertainty analysisRisk communication

Tools and standards

US EPA Risk Assessment Framework, WHO Human Health Risk Assessment Toolkit, ISO 31000, US EPA Data Quality Objectives Process

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short technical briefings followed by worked examples, case reviews, group analysis and structured calculation sessions. Participants examine realistic information from contaminated land, drinking-water, industrial emissions and indoor-air cases. Facilitated reviews test assumptions about receptors, pathways, toxicity values and uncertainty. Risk communication simulations develop concise explanations for non-specialist audiences. Each participant progressively assembles assessment components, receives peer and instructor feedback, and applies the methods to an environmental health issue relevant to their role.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with environmental management, workplace health and safety, public health, engineering, chemistry or environmental science. They should be comfortable reading monitoring results, technical reports and simple tables. Prior experience with contaminated sites, air-quality monitoring, toxicology or regulatory submissions is useful but not required. The course uses spreadsheet-based calculations, so confidence with basic arithmetic and Microsoft Excel is helpful. Participants do not need advanced statistics, laboratory experience, formal toxicology qualifications or prior risk assessment certification.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need basic familiarity with environmental, health and safety, engineering, public health or environmental science concepts. Advanced toxicology, statistics and prior contaminated-site experience are not required.

Participants should bring a laptop with Microsoft Excel or equivalent spreadsheet software. They may also bring a non-confidential environmental health issue, monitoring dataset or assessment report for application planning.

The course is designed for environmental health officers, HSE managers, environmental consultants, engineers, public health personnel and site managers. It is particularly useful for professionals who must interpret or prepare health-risk evidence for decisions.

Environmental impact assessment addresses broader project effects, alternatives and approvals, while this course focuses on human-health risks from environmental exposures. Occupational hygiene focuses mainly on worker exposures; this course also addresses residents, visitors, children and community receptors.

Participants can use the templates and calculation approaches to screen environmental health concerns, brief decision-makers, review consultant reports and specify further monitoring. More complex assessments may still require specialist toxicology, modelling or regulatory review.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first week establishes assessment foundations and exposure methods; the second week covers risk characterisation, controls, communication, governance and the final capstone assessment.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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