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Sparking Connections: Toward Better Linkages Between Research and Human Health Policy — An Example with Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes
Citation:
Powers, Christina, Jeff Gift, AND G. Lehmann. Sparking Connections: Toward Better Linkages Between Research and Human Health Policy — An Example with Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes. TOXICOLOGICAL SCIENCES. Society of Toxicology, RESTON, VA, 141(1):6-17, (2014).
Impact/Purpose:
This manuscript will be submitted as a Forum article to the journal Toxicological Sciences. The objective of the manuscript is to focus on specific research questions related to human health and how these may connect to future risk assessments and potential risk management efforts. Such connections will support more effective collaborations across the scientific community and more efficient progress toward risk assessment and risk management goals.
Description:
Risk assessment and subsequent risk management of environmental contaminants can benefit from early collaboration among researchers, risk assessors and risk managers. The benefits of collaboration in research planning are particularly evident in light of 1) increasing calls to expand upon the risk assessment paradigm to include a greater focus on problem formulation and consideration of potential trade-offs between risk management options, and 2) decreasing research budgets. Strategically connecting research planning to future decision making may be most critical in areas of emerging science for which data are often insufficient to clearly direct targeted research to support future risk assessment and management efforts. Here, we illustrate the application of the Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) approach, involving structured expert stakeholder engagement, to inform research planning for future risk assessment and management of one emerging material, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). High priority research areas identified for MWCNTs in flame-retardant coatings applied to upholstery textiles included the following: release across the product life cycle; environmental transport, transformation and fate in air, wastewater and sediment; exposure in human occupational and consumer groups; kinetics in the human body; impacts to human health and aquatic populations; and impacts on economic, social, and environmental resources. In this article, we focus on specific research questions related to human health and how these may connect to future risk assessments and potential risk management efforts. Such connections will support more effective collaborations across the scientific community and more efficient progress toward scientifically-informed risk management of emerging materials, such as MWCNTs.
