Description of the health risk

Health risk is always the consequence of other risks and calamities, to the point of being defined as a second degree risk. The health risk factor may be considered as a qualitative variable representing the possibility of an external factory causing harm to the population’s health. The probability that this could happen indicates the extent of the risk, i.e. the effect it could cause.

This type of risk could be:

• anthropic, if induced by human activities such as industrial accidents, industrial and farming activities, transport, waste;
• natural, if induced by natural events such as earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods, submarine earthquakes, sand storms.

Anthropic variables entailing a health risk can affect human health causing harm or effects, either temporary or permanent. These variables may be of a biological nature such as bacteria, virus, pollens, GMO; chemical such as asbestos, benzene, heavy metals, dioxins; physical such as UV radiations, ionizing radiations, noises, temperatures either too high or too low.

Whilst natural variables are included in all the natural calamity typologies such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami, landslides, floods or other phenomena, always of a natural type.