Community-based cumulative risk assessment (CBRA) is an approach to: 1) investigate multiple chemical and non-chemical stressors (e.g., psychosocial stress, violence, poverty, poor nutritional status) faced by a community; and 2) work in partnership with the community to instill confidence and trust among the public.
EPA’s Human Health Research Program (HHRP) has a long-term goal to understand how cumulative exposures affect human health. Additionally, HHRP has an objective to understand more about community risk from exposure to both chemical and non-chemical stressors.
What is a "stressor"?
A stressor is any physical, chemical, or biological entity that can induce an adverse response. A stressor may also be the lack of an essential entity, such as a habitat. (EPA Framework for Cumulative Risk Assessment, 2002)
- Find basic information on CBRA. This section provides more information on CBRA, including what the EPA is doing about it.
- Read the agenda and proceedings of the 2007 CBRA Workshop. In the fall of 2007, EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research (NCER) and National Center for Computational Toxicology (NCCT) sponsored a workshop to identify CBRA research needs.
- Learn about NCER's funding opportunities related to CBRA research.
- Connect to related CBRA links, such as organizations, toolkits, online modules, and presentations.
- Learn about NCER-supported research in areas related to CBRA.
- Find a short list of publicly accessible journal articles that address CBRA. In recent years, scientists have begun to focus on both cumulative risk assessment and CBRA.