Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Develop baseline design guidelines for new chemicals and technolo-
gies and fund research that can anticipate potential effects as part of technology
development.
Balance near-term research that is focused on understanding the poten-
tial risks posed by chemicals and technologies that are closer to commercializa-
tion with substantial development of longer-term predictive, anticipatory ap-
proaches for understanding the potential effects of the technologies.
Establish processes to collaborate with external partners in academe
and industry to attain needed expertise in the development of common metrics
for evaluation of emerging technologies.
Establish opportunities that educate and bring together chemical and
materials innovators and environmental health and safety experts (and other
stakeholders) to collaborate in understanding and intervening in chemical and
materials design.
Support efforts to amass and disseminate data, models, and design
guidelines for safer design to guide emerging technologies.
Embrace imperfect or incomplete information to guide actions. Uncer-
tainty will always exist in the case of emerging technologies, and identifying
alternative paths for action would allow EPA to act or provide guidance for de-
velopment and commercialization in the face of incomplete data.
Anticipating Emerging Challenges, Scientific Tools, and Scientific
Approaches
In recent years, EPA has had to make decisions on several headline-
grabbing environmental issues with underdeveloped scientific and technical
information or short timelines to gather critical new information, for example,
during natural disasters. EPA will always need the capacity to respond quickly
to surprises, in part by maintaining a strong cadre of technical staff who are
firmly grounded in the fundamentals of their disciplines and able to adapt and
respond as new situations arise. But the agency also needs to scan the horizon
actively and systematically to enhance its preparedness and to avoid being
caught by surprise. Anticipating new scientific tools and approaches will allow
EPA to fulfill its mission more effectively.
Collaboration is critical for identifying and addressing many of the topics
discussed in Chapter 2, such as trends in energy and climate change and “emerg-
ing” environmental concerns that are not new but are the result of improvements
in detection capabilities. For example, critics have suggested that the agency's
slow response to growing scientific concern about effects of pharmaceutical and
personal-care products in surface waters was due in part to its lack of infrastruc-
ture or collaboration to address problems that span media and jurisdictions
(Daughton 2001). EPA's efforts to anticipate science needs and emerging tools
to meet these needs cannot succeed in a vacuum. As it focuses on organizing
and catalyzing its internal efforts better, it will need to continue to look outside
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