With an increase in environmentally harmful accidents and amplification in their impact, the concept of "environmental risk assessment and management" has been formally acknowledged and applied for the last 30 years. As environmental risks have become more complex and relevant scientific knowledge has increased in its degree of detail, guidelines for the implementation of existing environmental risk assessment and risk management frameworks are needed. More and more international organizations and countries have developed and applied approaches to environmental risk assessment and risk management. The United States and Canada are two pioneers in the field. Although China faces various environmental risks and environmental accidents in the midst of its rapid social, economic and political transitions, for a long time, it has been lacking an environmental management system. After a series of accidents, especially SARS in 2003 and water pollution of Songhuajiang River in 2005, the setting-up of a national risk management system in China was initiated. However, it has not been systematically developed and falls short of guidelines for its implementation as well as practical and suitable methods for environmental risk assessment and risk management.
With the aim of learning from the experiences of the two pioneers of environmental risk assessment and risk management, the authors conducted a literature and document review, email exchanges and telephone interviews, and applied comparative analysis methods from February to October 2009, focusing on experiences of environmental, ecological, and human health risk assessment and management methodology. This article reviews more than 50 sets of environmental, ecological and human health risk assessment and management approaches currently being applied by agencies of the United States and Canada. Out of them, 24 frameworks are selected and their characteristics are described. Among these, 10 frameworks are analyzed in detail. We compare their basis and limitations, strengths and weaknesses, their application to case studies, as well as specific issues addressed by the frameworks. Based on the above analysis, we identified seven common elements that should be included in an effective and comprehensive framework to assess environmental, human health and work-related health risks. The seven elements are: risk formulation, involvement of stakeholders in this process, risk communication to stakeholders, quantitative risk assessment, reiteration and evaluation of the process, decision-making based on sound science, and flexibility of the environmental and ecological risk assessment and management framework. Strategies to develop risk management objectives are also discussed based on the experiences in the United States and Canada. This study concludes that decision makers in China should foremost focus on the formulation of objectives for environmental and ecological risk management. Other concerns include a sound scientific basis for environmental and ecological risk management, encouragement of stakeholders' involvement and effective risk communication using multiple communication channels, and the application of suitable and practical approaches for Chinese environmental risk management. This conclusion leads to the above mentioned strategies with the help of which environmental authorities may effectively support decision making processes and may not be marginalized or isolated in the process.