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THE HUMAN EXPOSURE DATABASE SYSTEM (HEDS)-PUTTING THE NHEXAS DATA ON-LINE
Citation:
Robertson, G L., J J. Quackenboss, S C. Hern, AND C. B. Thompson. THE HUMAN EXPOSURE DATABASE SYSTEM (HEDS)-PUTTING THE NHEXAS DATA ON-LINE. Presented at 11th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Exposure Analysis, Charleston, SC, November 4-8, 2001.
Impact/Purpose:
- Developing publically accessible databases.
- isseminating human exposure data bases and data tools in an appropriate manner to improve human exposure research and information.
- Ensuring that human exposure data sets generated by HEASD and its contractors or collaborators are useful for data analysis and for human exposure modeling, by providing formats and guidance on data base creation, documentation, storage, and retrieval.
- Ensuring that data sets produced in HEASD conform with ORD and EPA requirements.
- Compiling and translating existing human exposure data sets into useful formats for use by HEASD scientists and modelers.
- Making fully documented human exposure data sets available for researchers with collaborating external organizations.
Description:
The EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) has developed an Internet accessible Human Exposure Database System (HEDS) to provide the results of NERL human exposure studies to both the EPA and the external scientific communities. The first data sets that will be available are results from the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) pilot/demonstration studies in Arizona, Maryland, and EPA Region 5. The system is scheduled to be on-line through the EPA public Web site by September 30, 2001. The data will include analytical chemistry data for media such as air, soil, drinking water, house dust, food, beverage, blood, and urine. The analyte classes include pesticides, metals, volatile organic compounds (VOC), and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Not all media and analytes were tested in each study nor by all participants in a single study. Questionnaire and diary responses are also included. These address residential, life style, demographic, occupational, and health characteristics, time/activity patterns, and food consumption information. Population based weighting information is also provided. A data dictionary and code table is provided to define the contents for each data table. In addition, detailed documentation regarding each study's design and methods is provided to help the user interpret the data. The Quality System Implementation Plan (QSIP) for each study is provided as are the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for collecting, processing, storing, and analyzing the samples. These include field sampling procedures, analytical methods, questionnaire administration, participant selection, data review and storage, etc. HEDS is also tightly interfaced with EPA's Environmental Information Management System (EIMS) which contains a metadata record for each data table and document available in HEDS. The EIMS metadata record contains an abstract, other information, and a link to download the data table or document. EIMS is searchable to make the desired information easy to locate. HEDS will be described in detail, examples of the various types of data will be provided and procedures for using HEDS will be discussed.
This work has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under IAG number DW47789701 to the General Services Administration and has been approved for publication. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.