Develop Tools for Risk Management Decisions

A goal of the Human Health Research Program in EPA's Office of Research and Development is to enable EPA and others to gauge the actual public health consequences of EPA's regulations, programs, and other risk-management actions with the development of risk management tools and biological indicators.

Protecting the health of Americans from environmental pollution is a top priority of EPA. To accomplish this mission, it is clear that we need to understand the current state of the environment and how it may be changing over time. EPA launched an Environmental Indicators Initiative in 2001 to develop better indicators that the Agency can use to measure and track the state of our environment and support improved environmental decision-making. In 2003, the Agency generated the Report on the Environment (ROE) to describe what is known and what is not known about the nation's environment. The ROE found that:

Many studies had demonstrated an association between environmental exposure and certain diseases and other health problems, including radon and lung cancer, arsenic and cancer, and lead and developmental nervous systems disorders
Several measures such as life expectancy, the number of infant deaths, and the major causes of deaths are useful in assessing health trends over time
Measurements of outside pollutant concentrations in air, water, or land -- combined with estimates or measures of frequency and duration of human exposures to contaminated media -- have provided a valuable foundation for many regulatory and non-regulatory actions taken by the Agency to limit exposure to environmental pollutants.

Scientists in this new research area are developing the scientific basis for the use of health outcome measures to evaluate environmental policy decisions or interventions. They are also developing health indicators that could provide a clearer understanding of how environmental factors contribute to public health. Developing these measures of outcomes or results is challenging, because many other factors may also be linked to the manifestation of disease in addition to exposure to environmental pollutants.

Research in this area will involve efforts in the physical and social sciences and will need to take into account economic and behavior aspects of decision making. EPA is collaborating with its sister agencies such as the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to address these research needs.

Develop Tools for Risk Management Decisions

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