Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
ing techniques. Specific examples of ways in which new approaches to envi-
ronmental fate and transport modeling are enhancing the understanding of health
and ecologic impacts of pollutants are provided in the section on “Tools and
Technologies to Address Challenges of Air Pollution and Climate Change”.
Assessing the Extent of Human Exposures Through Biomonitoring
Historically, exposure research in EPA has focused on discrete expo-
sures—in external or internal environments, concentrating on effects from
sources or effects on biologic systems, and on human or ecologic exposures—
one pollutant or stressor at a time. Tools and methods have evolved for under-
taking those specific challenges, but targeted approaches have led to sparse ex-
posure data (Egeghy et al. 2012).
The broader availability and ease of use of advanced technologies are re-
sulting in a profusion of data and an overall democratization of the collection
and availability of exposure data. The US Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
alone has provided one of the most revealing snapshots of human exposures to
environmental chemicals through the use of biomonitoring (CDC 2012). The
collaboration between CDC and national and international organizations quickly
expanded the breadth and depth of data available at the population and subpopu-
lation level. That rapid progress was predicated on the availability of better ana-
lytic methods and a national commitment to generate baseline data.
Scientific and technologic advances in disparate fields—including compu-
tational chemistry, climate change science, health tracking, computational toxi-
cology, and sensor technology—have provided unprecedented opportunities to
address the needs of exposure research. Many of the tools are more accessible
and easier to use than earlier ones and are slowly being deployed by researchers
and stakeholders, such as state agencies and public-interest groups. For example,
advances in personal environmental monitoring technologies have been enabled
because people around the world routinely carry cellular telephones (Tsow et al.
2009). Those devices may be equipped with motion, audio, visual, and location
sensors that can be controlled through wireless networks. Efforts are underway
to use them to create expanding networks of sensors to collect personal exposure
information.
As discussed in Chapter 2, biomonitoring for human exposure to chemi-
cals in the environment has provided a new lens for understanding population
exposures to toxicants. Although the analytic and technical methods discussed to
measure human exposure to environmental toxicants will continue to improve,
without better information to understand whether the dose is of sufficient magni-
tude to cause an effect, simply identifying the presence of a toxic substance may
raise more questions than it answers. Therefore, there are continuing advances
needed to measure and understand the burden of chemicals and their metabolites
in the human body.
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