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OVERVIEW OF ECOTOXICOLOGY RESEARCH AT THE US EPA NHEERL, MID-CONTINENT ECOLOGY DIVISION
Citation:
Schmieder, P K. OVERVIEW OF ECOTOXICOLOGY RESEARCH AT THE US EPA NHEERL, MID-CONTINENT ECOLOGY DIVISION. Presented at International Symposium on Endocrine-Disrupting Substances Testing in Medaka, Nagoya, Japan, March 17-20, 2000.
Description:
The US Environmental Protection Agency is a regulatory agency whose mission is the protection of human health and the environment. 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 that provides the scientific basis for Agency policy and regulations. 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 (MED) 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. For more than 30 years MED has been developing methods for the assessment of acute and chronic toxicity to aquatic organisms. 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 and Sediment Quality Criteria. The aquatic toxicology research at MED, however, goes beyond the establishment of test methods and criteria to the development of an understanding of basic physical, chemical and biological processes that underlay the susceptibility of organisms to environmental stressors. This presentation will provide an overview of the Division's facilities and describe some on-going basic and applied toxicology research. Endocrine disruptor research and studies that have utilized medaka as a test organism will be highlighted.