V |
| Validation | Confirmation by examination and provision of objective evidence that the particular requirements for a specific intended use have been fulfilled. In design and development, validation concerns the process of examining a product or result to determine conformance to user needs. |
| Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) | The standard approach to placing a dollar value on the life-saving benefits of an action based on societal willingness to pay (WTP) for mortality risk reductions. Also a convenient way to summarize the value of small reductions in mortality risks. A statistical life is not any individual person's life; it represents the change in premature mortality across a population from any given cause. |
| Vapor | The gas given off by substances that are solids or liquids at ordinary atmospheric pressure and temperatures. |
| Vapor Pressure | A measure of a substance's propensity to evaporate, vapor pressure is the force per unit area exerted by vapor in an equilibrium state with surroundings at a given pressure. It increases exponentially with an increase in temperature. A relative measure of chemical volatility, vapor pressure is used to calculate water partition coefficients and volatilization rate constants. |
| Verification | Confirmation by examination and provision of objective evidence that specified requirements have been fulfilled. In design and development, verification concerns the process of examining a result of a given activity to determine conformance to the stated requirements for that activity. |
| Volatile | Any substance that evaporates readily. |
| Voluntary Agreements | Voluntary initiatives range from arrangements in which the parties (usually enterprises or their trade associations) set their own targets, on toxics-use reduction for example, and often do their own monitoring and reporting, to commitments made by an industrial sector in negotiation with public authorities, or government. |
