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Understanding Risks to Susceptible Subpopulations
Additional Information
Summary
Some individuals are more susceptible to environmental exposures due to intrinsic factors such as life stage or genetics and acquired factors such as preexisting disease or nutrition. HEASD’s research program is focused on characterizing childhood and geriatric exposures. Understanding how these potentially susceptible subpopulations come into contact with environmental contaminants is critical to understanding their potential for elevated risks. HEASD’s research program is seeking to identify and understand the factors that influence children’s exposures and exposures to elderly Americans, so that this information may be integrated into future risk assessments and environmental policy decisions.
Research Areas
Aging - The Office of Research and Development is applying an environmental public health paradigm to better understand relationships between pollution sources, human exposures, internal dose, and adverse health outcomes for the rapidly expanding population of older adults. Research in the Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division will be directed towards understanding aging-related changes in activity, exposure, and pharmacokinetic factors within this diverse population. This research will reduce uncertainties in risk assessment through understanding and elucidating the fundamental determinants of exposure and dose for older adults. Details of AgingChildren - The EPA has pledged to increase its efforts to provide a safe and healthy environment for children by ensuring that all EPA regulations, standards, policies, and risk assessments take into account special childhood vulnerabilities to environmental chemicals. Research performed by EPA’s Office of Research and Development to understand the exposure, susceptibility, and differential risks of children to pesticides and other chemicals in their everyday environments addresses the requirements of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 and the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996. The Food Quality Protection Act requires that risk assessments must be based on exposure data that are of high quality and high quantity or on exposure models using factors that are based on existing, reliable data. The Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division is performing research to address data gaps by providing critical measurement data and models to characterize activities and exposure factors that contribute to children’s aggregate and cumulative exposures. Details of Children