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Recent Additions
November 16, 2004
- EPA has studied the efficiency of chemical dispersing agents on spilled oils, using a laboratory test called the baffled flask test. Experiments were conducted at various temperatures, degrees of volatilization and energy levels. The results are documented in Characteristics of Spilled Oils, Fuels, and Petroleum Products: 2a. Dispersant Effectiveness Data for a Suite of Environmental Conditions - the Effects of Temperature, Volatilization, and Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Athens, GA. Publication No. EPA/600/R-04/119. (PDF, 86 pp., 398 KB)
November 3, 2004
- Collaboration with the Canaan Valley Institute - Watershed health assessment tools.
- Philadelphia Forum on Laboratory Accreditation - January 29 - February 4, 2005 (PDF, 2pp, 43KB). The Institute for National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation (INELA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are pleased to announce the Philadelphia Forum on Laboratory Accreditation. This is a week long event consisting of the Tenth Interim Meeting of the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC 10i), a meeting of the Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB), seminars and training courses, INELA’s semi-annual Meeting, and other events. All meetings are fully open to anyone who wishes to participate.
- Regional Vulnerability Assessment for the Mid-Atlantic Region: Evaluation of Integration Methods and Assessment Results (PDF, 90pp, 2.4MB) - Prioritization of risk management actions involves balancing many different factors that can be addressed through a series of assessment questions. Analysis results presented here should provide useful information to others involved in integrated risk assessment in that integration methods were tested and compared using the same set of regional spatial data. By comparing the results of each method, we have identified which integration methods are appropriate to address different types of assessment questions that contribute to informing decisions that require prioritization of areas for risk management actions. These results are directly transferable to other regions and can be applied to other scales of data.
October 21, 2004
- Recent Exposure Research Accomplishments for Clean/Safe Water:
- Recent Exposure Research Accomplishments for Healthy Communities and Ecosystems:
October 20, 2004
October 18, 2004
- Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS)
- EPA Partners With American Chemistry Council to Study Young Children's Exposures to Household Chemicals [PDF, 2 pp., 110 KB]- October 12, 2004, News Release
- Longitudinal Study of Young Children's Exposures in their Homes to Selected Pesticides, Phthalates, Brominated Flame Retardants, and Perfluorinated Chemicals [PDF, 2 pp., 89 KB]- nontechnical questions and answers about the study
- CHEERS flyer [PDF, 1 pp., 164 KB] - flyer with contact information and participant requirements
September 30, 2004
- Recent exposure research accomplishments for land preservation and restoration
- Laboratory Accreditation Standards Development and Technical Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program - a new assistance opportunity
September 10, 2004
- Potential Environmental Impacts of Dust Suppressants: "Avoiding Another Times Beach" [PDF, 97 pp., 1.6 MB] - An expert panel summary. The purpose of this report is to summarize the current state of knowledge on the potential environmental impacts of chemical dust suppressants. Dust suppressants abate dust by changing the physical properties of the soil surface and are typically used on construction sites, unpaved roads, and mining activities.
September 9, 2004
- Particulate Matter Research Program: Five Years of Progress - Five years of research confirms the need to reduce fine particle air pollution. EPA's proposed Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR) will result in the deepest cuts in a decade in emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) - the two most important precursors of fine particle pollution.
September 2, 2004
- Safe Food Exposure Research - This page gives an overview of safe food exposure research, links to current research, recent accomplishments, and related web sites.
- Recent Exposure Research Accomplishments for Safe Communities:
- Recent Exposure Research Accomplishments for Sound Science:
September 1, 2004
- Science Report on Exposure Research and Development: Observations of the Earth – Leading Science and Technology - The August 2004 edition of the "Science Report on Exposure Research and Development" provides news about the Agency's exposure research program and scientists. The report covers topics such as research on human exposure to particulate matter and air toxics, and indoor air pollution detection.
- ORD Hosts Workshop to Explore Environmental Effects of Aging Population - Scientists, public health officials and other professionals in the fields of aging, demographics, health and ecology came together August 10-12 at an EPA workshop in Research Triangle Park, N.C., to share their expertise on the potential impacts a growing legion of older Americans may have on natural resources and environmental quality. The growth in the number of older Americans has major implications from both a human and ecological health perspective.
August 30, 2004
- Recent Exposure Research Accomplishments for Clean/Safe Water:
- Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) - EPA Research and Development is conducting a Children's Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) to better understand how young children come into contact with pesticides and other chemicals in their homes.
August 24, 2004
- Updated Brewer spectrophotometer data for the following national parks: Great Smoky Mountain, TN; Theodore Roosevelt, ND; Sequoia, CA; Glacier, MT; Canyonlands, UT; and the Virgin Islands has been added to the UV NET site.
- Atmospheric Modeling Monthly Highlights: July 2004
August 19, 2004
- Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) - In July 2003, the United States hosted the Earth Observation Summit. The summit brought together 33 nations plus the European Commission to adopt a declaration that signified a political commitment toward the development of a comprehensive, coordinated and sustained Earth Observation System to collect and disseminate improved data, information, and models to stakeholders and decision makers. As part of that effort, EPA has provided state fact sheets detailing how Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) could be beneficial to each state (Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)).
July 21, 2004
July 20, 2004
- Science for the 21st Century - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with other federal agencies has developed information in support of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy report, "Science for the 21st Century".
July 7, 2004
- External Peer Review Panel Meeting on IRIS Toxicological Review and Summary Documents for Naphthalene - EPA's IRIS Program is announcing that an external peer review panel meeting to review the inhalation cancer assessment and selected text in the external review draft document entitled, "Toxicological Review of Naphthalene: In Support of Summary Information on the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS)"(NCEA-S-1707) was published in the Federal Register July 7, 2004 [FRL-7783-2; E-docket No.: ORD-2004-0007].
- Draft Framework for Metals Assessment - This preliminary draft document (Framework for Metals Risk Assessment (Framework)) will be the subject of a peer consultation workshop in July 2004. The purpose of the workshop is to prepare the document for review by the Science Advisory Board (SAB), later this year.
July 6, 2004
- NERL Postdocs - The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) of the United States Environmental Protection Agency is seeking candidates to fill approximately 9 federal, four-year post-doctoral research positions. NERL conducts research and development related to the exposure of people and ecosystems to a wide range of pollutants in the air, water, and soil, and to other environmental changes resulting from human activities at a wide range of scales including landscape alterations.
June 30, 2004
- Summary Report of the Peer Review Workshop on the Neurotoxicity of Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene) Discussion Paper - The report, Summary Report of the Peer Review Workshop on the Neurotoxicity of Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene) Discussion, summarizes the discussions at a February 25, 2004, workshop that brought together recognized scientific experts to engage in a public discussion on the neurological effects of inhalation of tetrachloroethylene, as well as a review of studies that focus on these effects.
June 28, 2004
- Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter (Fourth External Review Draft) [revised Chapters 7, 8, and 9, June 2004] - On December 30, 2003, EPA released for public review and comment revised draft Chapters 7 and 8 of the Fourth External Review Draft of EPA's document, Air Quality Criteria for Particulate Matter. These chapters incorporate revisions made in response to earlier external review of those chapters, including comments received at the August 25 and 26, 2003, review meeting of the EPA Science Advisory Board's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC). At that meeting, CASAC reached closure on all chapters except Chapter 7 (toxicology), Chapter 8 (human health), and 9 (integrative synthesis). Since then CASAC has provided additional review comments on revised drafts of Chapters 7 and 8 (dated December 2003). EPA is now making further revised drafts of Chapters 7, 8, and 9 available for CASAC and public review. These revised draft chapters will be reviewed by CASAC at a public meeting to be held July 20-21, 2004.
June 22, 2004
- National Children's Study Technology Workshop and Report - The NCS Technology Report from the National Children's Study Workshop meeting (Boston MA - May '03) is now available on the NCEA Website. For more specific information about the National Children's Study website visit www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/events/workshops/index.cfm.
June 18, 2004
- Henry’s Law Calculations:
The Henry’s law estimator has been enhanced to include more chemicals and an alternate method of calculation. The alternate method was developed by EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) for use in vapor intrusion assessment. Where required input data exist, both calculation methods give similar results. The OSWER method contains data for 97 chemicals, including many that are new to the calculators.
- Vapor Intrusion Model
Two versions of the Johnson-Ettinger (JE) model for vapor intrusion (VI) have been added to the calculator collection. These implement the approach taken in the OSWER VI guidance. Given a indoor air risk level, the first model back-calculates target soil gas and ground water concentrations. The second reverses the process by presuming a measured soil gas or ground water concentration and determines the associated risk. Both models implement a limited uncertainty analysis, because most of the parameters of the models are not measured in typical applications. Future work will include expanding the uncertainty analysis to include additional parameters.
June 16, 2004
- NERL Science Forum 2004 poster abstracts and posters - these posters focus on Science and Innovation to Protect Health and the Environment but also include posters for Delivering Science-Based Information to Decision Makers and Using Science to Make a Difference.
May 21, 2004
May 17, 2004
- National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC) - a voluntary association of State and Federal agencies with full opportunity for input from the private sector. NELAC's purpose is to establish and promote mutually acceptable performance standards for the operation of environmental laboratories.
May 10, 2004
- Summaries of current projects from NERL's Ecological Exposure Research Division
May 7, 2004
- Summaries of current projects from NERL's Ecological Exposure Research Division
May 6, 2004
- Environmental Science Education (PDF, 2 pp., 621 KB) - The Environmental Science Education (ESE) program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Exposure Research Laboratory-Ecosystems Research Division provides schools and the general public with results of the Agency’s basic and applied environmental research.
- Mid Atlantic Land Cover Change - The Mid-Atlantic region is comprised of southern New York, southern and western New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, northeastern North Carolina, Delaware, and Washington, D.C. It is an ecosystem rich in streams, wetlands, forests, estuaries, breeding birds, biological diversity and a large human population. This collection of digital coverages will provide researchers with the resources to document the alteration of critical landscape ecological components and processes within the Mid-Atlantic region.
- Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP6.1) Workshop (PDF, 5 pp., 912 KB) - WASP6 is used routinely throughout the United States in the development of TMDLs and waste load allocations. The model contains algorithms for conducting: 1) Eutrophication/Conventional Pollutants, 2) Organic Chemicals/Simple Metals, 3) Mercury, 4) Temperature, Fecal Coliforms, Conservative Pollutants. This workshop will be held June 21 - 25 in Atlanta, GA.
April 27, 2004
- Atmospheric Modeling Monthly Highlights - March Issue
- BASS: Bioaccumulation and Aquatic System Simulator (PDF, 2 pp., 58 KB) - fact sheet about BASS, a computer model that simulates the population and bioaccumulation dynamics of age-structured fish communities.
- ERD’s Computational Toxicology Research Program (PDF, 2 pp., 48 KB) - fact sheet about NERL's Ecosystems Research Division's role in the ORD Computational Toxicology Research Initiative.
April 21, 2004
- Collaboration with the Canaan Valley Institute - The Canaan Valley Institute (CVI, a nonprofit outreach organization) and NERL's Ecosystems Research Division (ERD), Athens, Georgia, will collaborate in adding to the existing GIS/modeling tools (Landscape Analyst, Highlands Profiler, REVA web tool) to address aquatic ecosystem management and restoration.
- EXAMS - Exposure Analysis Modeling System (EXAMS) is an interactive software application for formulating aquatic ecosystem models and rapidly evaluating the fate, transport, and exposure concentrations of synthetic organic chemicals including pesticides, industrial materials, and leachates from disposal sites. Several versions of the EXAMS system are now available on the EPA Center for Exposure Assessment Modeling (CEAM).
April 12, 2004
- Particulate Matter (PM) Research - The information on these pages describes the research being done by EPA to better understand how particles are emitted into the air or how they form in the air from gaseous pollutants, how they are transported, how people are exposed to them, and the health effects people may experience after they breathe in these particles.
April 6, 2004
- The National Exposure Research Laboratory Particulate Matter (PM) Research Program's five major areas of research are (1) Human exposure measurements and modeling, (2) Source / receptor modeling, (3) Atmospheric measurements, (4) Atmospheric chemistry, and (5) Atmospheric modeling. Read more about them at NERL's new Particulate Matter Research Web site.
March 29, 2004
March 23, 2004
- Distributed Structure-Searchable Toxicity (DSSTox) Public Database Network - The Distributed Structure-Searchable Toxicity (DSSTox) Database Network provides a community forum for publishing standard format, structure-annotated chemical toxicity data files for open public access.
March 11, 2004
- Summary Report of the U.S. EPA Technical Peer Review Meeting on the Draft Document Entitled: Exposure and Human Health Evaluation of Airborne Pollution from the World Trade Center Disaster
The Exposure and Human Health Evaluation of Airborne Pollution from the World Trade Center Disaster (4.8 Mb) was released for public review and comment in December of 2002. In July of 2003, an expert panel met in New York City to review this document. A report on their deliberations has now been completed and is listed above. This report captures the main points and highlights of the meeting, including a compilation of the individual reviewers' comments, summaries of the panel discussions, and appendices which include comments and materials provided by the public during the meeting.
March 3, 2004
- What is in Our Drinking Water? - Identification of New Chemical Disinfection By-products (DBPs)
- Comparison of Methods for the Determination of Alkyl Phosphates in Urine - To characterize the performance of four existing analytical methods used to analyze urine samples for the six urinary alkyl phosphate metabolites of OP pesticides, an interlaboratory comparison study was done. (PDF, 63 pp., 4.44 MB)
- Updated Brewer spectrophotometer data for Albuquerque, NM has been added to the UV NET site.
March 1, 2004
- On-Line Training Course: Two modules of the "Modeling Subsurface Transport of Petroleum Hydrocarbons" course have been completed and posted to the Internet. The course addresses primarily the transport of contaminants from leaking underground storage tanks. The materials are based on a series of live courses that have been taught to EPA regional offices, state agencies and the private sector over the past 5 years.
Each module is self-contained with an introduction, objectives, course materials consisting of 20 to 40 web pages, a quiz and certificate. Passing scores of 85% or higher on the quiz allow receipt of the certificate. See http://www.epa.gov/athens/learn2model/
- Particulate Matter
February 9, 2004
- Integrating Ecological Risk Assessment and Economic Analysis in Watersheds: A Conceptual Approach and Three Case Studies (Final Report) - This new report discusses a program of research that investigated the integration of ecological risk assessment and economics, focused on watersheds as the scale for analysis. It presents the results of three case studies (Big Darby Creek watershed of Ohio; the upper Clinch and Powell River watersheds of Virginia and Tennessee; and the central reach of the Platte River in Nebraska) and offers a conceptual approach for the integration of ecological risk assessments and economic analysis.
February 4, 2004
- Mississippi River Habitat Vulnerability Project - EPA report about landsat analyses of the Mississippi River.
- Using Canines in Source Detection of Indoor Air Pollutants - Dogs have been used extensively in law enforcement and military applications to detect narcotics and explosives for over thirty years. Research is now being done to investigate the utility of dogs for indoor air quality assessments.
February 3, 2004
- Exposure Related Dose Estimating Model (ERDEM) - a physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model. This version contains the determination of enzyme inhibition. Links for registration and model download are available.
January 7, 2004
January 6, 2004
- The Feasibility of Performing Cumulative Risk Assessments for Mixtures of Disinfection By-Products in Drinking Water - First, exposure modeling is conducted to estimate the potential dose at the absorption barrier (e.g., gastrointestinal tract, skin, and lung) and the results are linked with physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling to estimate measures of internal dose from exposure to all three routes for use in risk assessment. Second, a mixtures risk assessment method, based on additivity concepts presented in the Agency's mixtures guidance documents (U.S. EPA, 1986; 2000), is proposed to logically evaluate human health risks using total internal doses and oral toxicology dose-response data based on knowledge or assumptions regarding mode of action.
- Developing Relative Potency Factors for Pesticide Mixtures: Biostatistical Analyses of Joint Dose-Response - New quantitative methods for applying Relative Potency Factor (RPF) are shown addressing the important question of how to assess a mixture containing some chemicals that share a common toxic mode of action and other chemicals that do not. The biostatistical methods developed in this report provide alternative methods to evaluate a mixture under three scenarios of varying degrees of uncertainty. The simple case occurs when there is certainty that a common toxic mode of action is operating, so a dose addition approach can be applied. The second case occurs when the mixture components can be divided into independent mode of action subclasses; dose addition and response addition can be integrated to make the assessment. The third case occurs when mode of action is uncertain, so a joint dose-response modeling procedure is used to create a range of risk estimates.
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