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OVERVIEW OF ECOTOXICOLOGY RESEARCH PROGRAMS AND MEDAKA RESEARCH AT THE US EPA NATIONAL HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS LABORATORY'S MID-CONTINENT ECOLOGY DIVISION
Citation:
Schmieder, P. K. AND R. D. Johnson. OVERVIEW OF ECOTOXICOLOGY RESEARCH PROGRAMS AND MEDAKA RESEARCH AT THE US EPA NATIONAL HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS LABORATORY'S MID-CONTINENT ECOLOGY DIVISION. Presented at International Symposium on Endocrine Disrupting Substance Testing in Medaka, Nagoya, JAPAN, March 17 - 20, 2000.
Description:
The US Environmental Protection Agency is a regulatory agency of the federal government whose mission it is to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment -- air, water, land -- upon which life depends. The EPA has several Program and Regional Offices that form the regulatory side of the Agency. The Office of Research and Development (ORD) is a separate office in the Agency whose mission it is to provide the scientific foundation for the EPA's environmental protection mission. The five National Laboratories and Centers of ORD are organized around the risk assessment paradigm and address exposure, effects, risk assessment, and risk management issues associated with the protection of human health and wildlife. The Mid-Continent Ecology Division is one of nine Divisions in ORD's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, and the only Division dealing with freshwater ecology and toxicology research. The Mid-Continent Ecology Division, located on the shores of Lake Superior, the world's largest freshwater lake, has been developing methods for assessing chemical toxicities to freshwater aquatic life for more than 30 years. During this time the Division has contributed many standard test methods for the assessment of acute and chronic toxicity of organic chemicals and metals in the water column and sediment. These methods have been the basis for EPA's water quality criteria, sediment quality criteria guidelines, toxicity identification and evaluation guidelines, etc. To accomplish the aquatic ecotoxicology mission of the laboratory, MED maintains a culture unit for the continuous culturing and/or holding of sseveral aquatic species. Organisms currently under culture include the fathead minnow, a small fish species - - -