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Establishing Exposure Science as a Distinct Scientific Discipline
Citation:
PLEIL, J. D., K. Sawyer, B. C. Blount, S. Waidyanatha, AND M. Harper. Establishing Exposure Science as a Distinct Scientific Discipline. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology . Nature Publishing Group, London, Uk, 22(4):317-319;, (2012).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA.
Description:
As readers of this journal, we are likely in agreement that ‘‘Exposure science is the bedrock for protection of public health.’’,1 and despite some differing opinions as to what the exact definition of ‘‘exposure science’’ should be, a general consensus states that it ‘‘... studies human contact with chemical, physical, or biological agents occurring in their environments, and advances knowledge of the mechanisms and dynamics of events either causing or preventing adverse health outcomes.’’2,3 We have probably also observed that, in the greater scheme of scientific professions, those who practice exposure science are erstwhile chemists, biologists, physicists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, mathematicians, computer scientists, statisticians, environmental engineers, and medical/public health doctors; few, if any, of us are formally trained ‘‘exposure scientists’’. Furthermore, exposure science tends to be considered a part of the other public health disciplines; the toxicologists, statisticians, and epidemiologists treat exposure as a subset of their disciplines, and often express concern about the lack of sufficient exposure information. In this article, we hope to promote exposure science as a distinct and recognizable scientific discipline.
URLs/Downloads:
Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology
Establishing Exposure Science as a Distinct Scientific Discipline (PDF, NA pp, 29 KB, about PDF)