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OVERVIEW OF THE INTRAMURAL RISK MANAGEMENT RESEARCH PROGRAM
Citation:
Sayles*, G D. OVERVIEW OF THE INTRAMURAL RISK MANAGEMENT RESEARCH PROGRAM. Presented at EDC Program Review Workshop, Research Triangle Park, NC, 10/30/2002.
Description:
This presentation will provide a summary of the risk management portion of ORD's endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) research program, including its motivation, goals, planning efforts and resulting research areas.
In an emerging research area like EDCs, risk management (RM) research and risk assessment (effects, exposure, characterization) research can and should be conducted in parallel. Early or tentative effects and exposure information can point to the identification and development of risk management approaches that may prevent or control risks with high effectiveness at low cost. These early risk management approaches may possess relatively large uncertainty in their effectiveness at reducing risk because the risk information is relatively uncertain. However, if risk managers must make a decision based on only limited risk information, risk management approaches with large uncertainties may be more attractive than no options. As the knowledge of risk matures, the approaches for risk management become increasingly certain.
Consistent with this philosophy, the RM research program began with the development of the Risk Management Evaluation of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (RME). This RME provides a snapshot in time of the current state of risk management, i.e., what currently available risk management approaches can be adapted to address EDCs, and what new RM technologies or strategies need development? This document should be available to the public by the end of 2002. Because risk information is continually evolving, and risk management technologies and approaches are continually growing and maturing, the RME for EDCs will be updated on a regular basis.
The RME provided a list of research questions that have been used to plan the RM research program. The program is characterizing sources of EDCs to the environment, developing strategies to minimize these sources, and investigating strategies to remediate EDCs in environmental reservoirs. Specifically, research is being conducted in the following areas:
a. Studying wastewater (sewage) treatment as a source of EDCs, and developing approaches to improve treatment as necessary.
b. Characterizing concentrated animal feeding operation as sources of EDCs and developing animal waste treatment approaches as necessary.
c. Characterizing combustion processes as sources of EDCs, and developing improvements to the process to minimize this source.
d. Studying the natural attenuation of alkylphenols in sediment impacted by wastewater treatment plant outfalls.
e. Evaluating the ability of conventional and advanced drinking water treatment plants processes to remove EDCs, and improving these processes if necessary.
f. Developing pollution prevention tools that can be used to evaluate and nominate substitute chemicals for EDCs currently in use.
g. Adaptation of EDC screening bioassays for use in determining the performance of RM technologies.