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HUMAN HEALTH MULTI-YEAR PLAN
Citation:
Impact/Purpose:
The Office of Research and Development (ORD) has initiated a multi-year planning effort to plan the direction of our research program in selected topic areas over five or more years. This approach promotes ORD's focus on the highest priority issues and provides coordination for achieving our long-term research goals. The focus of this effort is the development of Multi-Year Plans (MYPs).
The purpose of the MYPs is to provide a framework that integrates research across ORD's laboratories and centers and Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) goals in support of the Agency's mission to protect human health and the environment. The MYPs identify long-term goals, and present annual performance goals (APGs) and associated annual performance measures (APMs) for a planning window of approximately 5-10 years. By helping to identify the impact of potential annual planning decisions, MYPs aid in the evaluation of research options. MYPs also foster the integration of strategic risk-based environmental protection and anticipation of future environmental issues by communicating our research approach and timing for responding to environmental issues. MYPs are intended to be living documents and are updated as needed to reflect the current state of the science, resource availability, and Agency priorities.
MYPs include two major components: (1) a narrative description of the plan, and (2) a matrix of goals and measures. The narrative provides an introduction and background to the topic of the plan, describes the long-term goals, provides the logic/thinking used to array performance goals to achieve long-term goals, and describes the integration between goals and organizations. The matrix is used to indicate annual goals and measures needed to meet the long-term goals identified in the plan. These goals and measures are arrayed across time (i.e., fiscal years) and laboratories/centers and are based on total annual resource levels for the MYP topic area that will not exceed the resource level proposed in the most recent President's Budget.
Description:
EPA's human health research represents the Agency's only comprehensive program to address the limitations in human health risk assessment. The measurement-derived databases, models, and protocols developed through this research program will strengthen the scientific foundation for human health risk assessment and will be used by scientists across the Agency. Research efforts include developing principles that establish how chemicals or chemical classes act and improved risk assessment methods for evaluating selected subpopulations (including exploring ways that age, genetics, and health status influence susceptibility to chemical exposures); determining the effects of preexisting disease (such as pulmonary or cardiovascular disease) to humans exposed to environmental agents; and developing the tools and methods that comprise the framework to evaluate public health. Within the scope of this MYP, EPA will advance its long-term goals of: 1. By 2012, develop a commonly accepted approach for estimating the risk to human health posed by exposure to toxic chemicals in the environment that incorporates information on biological modes or mechanisms governing their toxicity. 2. By 2008, provide regulatory decision makers with data-based models, risk assessment approaches, and guidance that will be used for conducting assessments for aggregate exposure and risks to pollutants that pose the greatest health risks to the American public. 3. By 2012, provide regulatory decision makers with data-based models, risk assessment approaches, and guidance that will be used for conducting assessments for cumulative exposure and risks to pollutants that pose the greatest health risks to the American public. 4. By 2014, demonstrate why some groups of people, defined by life stage, genetic factors, and health status, are more vulnerable than others to adverse effects from exposure to environmental agents. 5. By 2008, provide the scientific understanding and tools to assist the Agency and others in evaluating the effectiveness of public health outcomes resulting from environmental risk management options.