ATSDR Health Consultations

A Health Consultation provides advice on a specific public health issue related to real or possible human exposure to toxic material. Anyone can request a Health Consultation. ATSDR receives the most requests from EPA and state and local health and environmental departments, and provides about 1,000 Health Consultations per year.

A Health Consultation is a way for ATSDR to respond quickly to a need for health information on toxic substances and to make recommendations for actions to protect the public's health. ATSDR staff evaluate information available about toxic material at the site, determine whether people might be exposed to it, and report what harm exposure might cause.

Health Consultations may consider :

• what the levels (or "concentrations") of hazardous substances are;
  
• whether people might be exposed to contamination and how (through "exposure pathways" such as breathing air, drinking or contacting water, contacting or eating soil, or eating food)
  
• what harm the substances might cause to people (or the contaminants' "toxicity")
  
• whether working or living nearby might affect people's health
  
• other dangers to people, such as unsafe buildings, abandoned mine shafts, or other physical hazards

What happens after the Health Consultation?

• site cleanup
• keeping people away from contamination and physical dangers_for example, by fencing the site
• giving residents acceptable drinking water
• relocating exposed people
• community environmental health education for residents and health care providers to inform them about site contaminants, harmful health effects, and ways to reduce or prevent health effects
• an ATSDR or state health study

ATSDR Public Health Assessments report on sites but in more detail. They rely on three main types of information :

• environmental data, such as information about the contaminants and how people come in contact with them;
• health data, including available information on communitywide rates of illness, disease, and death compared with national and state rates;
• community concerns, such as reports from the public about how the site affects their health or quality of life.