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ANALYSIS AND PRODUCTS FROM NHEXAS -- NATIONAL HUMAN EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT SURVEY

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http://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_comments.cfm

Impact/Purpose:

The overall objectives of this task are to

1) conduct analyses of the NHEXAS data for description of data quality and aggregate exposures;

2) review, summarize, and organize the NHEXAS questionnaire and analytical results databases, and

3) collect and record the experiences and recommendations of the study investigators and staff regarding key lessons which were learned in conducting these studies.

Description:

The National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) was developed as a federal interagency research effort to examine the full range of environmental pollutants and chemicals (volatile organic chemicals, metals, and pesticides) that humans are exposed to in daily life. The purpose of NHEXAS was to provide estimates the distributions of human exposures to multiple high-risk target chemicals in multiple media and from various pathways, and to provide opportunities for evaluating factors contributing to higher exposures. These studies provide unique information on the ranges of actual exposures in the general population for use as "benchmarks" for site-specific investigations and for health risk assessments. The designs, protocols, and methods developed and tested in the NHEXAS studies can be used by other agencies and States to assist in the investigation of exposures possibly related to public health concerns. Three interrelated projects (Cooperative Agreements) were developed to evaluate approaches to conducting NHEXAS with reasonably large populations, and to test study hypotheses with the resulting measurement and survey data: (1) Arizona study of several hundred Arizona residents conducted by the University of Arizona, Battelle Memorial Institute, and the Illinois Institute of Technology; (2) Maryland study of about 60 Maryland residents conducted by Harvard University, Emory University, Johns Hopkins University, and Westat; and (3) Region V study of several hundred residents from the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin conducted by the Research Triangle Institute and the Environmental Occupational Health Sciences Institute. (As a component of the Region V study, a smaller-scale study focused on children's exposures to pesticides was conducted with the participation of the Minnesota Department of Health.) Subsequently, contracts were developed with each of these Consortia to obtain the master and analysis databases, to select and reformat the "key results" data (by chemical and medium), and to complete aggregate exposure analyses related to the FQPA. Current and proposed activities for this Task are organized into three sub-tasks: 1) NHEXAS Analyses, 2) NHEXAS Databases, and 3) NHEXAS Lessons Learned.

Record Details:

Record Type:PROJECT
Start Date:10/01/1999
Completion Date:09/01/2002
Record ID: 56143