Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
SCIENCE, TOOLS, AND TECHNOLOGIES TO ADDRESS
CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES
As with all of science and engineering, the fields of environmental science
and technology continue to evolve. Tools and methods are becoming more pow-
erful and sophisticated. In Chapter 3, the committee identified some examples of
tools and technologies that have helped and will continue to help EPA to address
challenges that are relevant to its mission. As mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter, the committee was not asked to and did not attempt to prioritize specific
tools and technologies that EPA should invest in for the future. Those decisions
will need to be made by EPA based on factors such as where it would like to
develop its inhouse expertise in the future, where it would prefer to collaborate
to gain the expertise it needs, and where it would like to leverage or incentivize
outside expertise. Some specific areas the committee identified where EPA may
want to consider maintaining or enhancing its expertise on in the future include:
Extend collaborations with remote-sensing scientists.
Find ways to engage in broader, deeper, and sustained support for long-
term monitoring.
Continue to promote methodologic development and application to
rapid and predictive monitoring.
Develop a quantitative microbial risk-assessment framework that in-
corporates alternative indicators, using genomic approaches, microbial source
tracking, and pathogen monitoring.
Collaborate with other agencies (for example, the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences Exposure Biology program; the NSF Environ-
mental, Health, and Safety Risks of Nanomaterials program; the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention; and the European Commission's Exposure Ini-
tiative) to build a greater capacity for exposure science.
Improve exposure assessment for environmental-epidemiology studies.
Continue modeling efforts to advance understanding of sources and en-
vironmental processes that contribute to particulate matter loadings and conse-
quent health and environmental effects.
Improve understanding of interactions between climate change and air
quality, with a focus on relatively short-lived greenhouse agents, such as ozone,
black carbon, and other constituents of particulate matter.
Develop processes and procedures for effective public communication
of the potential public health and environmental risks associated with the in-
creasing number of chemicals.
Improve understanding of the value and limitations of “-omic” tech-
nologies and approaches for environmental and human health risk assessment.
Continue validation of high-throughput in vitro assays for the screening
of new chemicals for potentially hazardous properties while continuing to rec-
ognize the limitations and strengths of current toxicity-testing approaches.
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