Workshop
Ecosystems form the foundation upon which society can survive and thrive, providing food, water, air, materials, and recreation. These connections between people and their environments are under stress from human-driven climate change, pollution, resource exploitation, and other actions that may have implications for public health. The integral connection between nature and human health is recognized and has been explored through different bodies of work; however, because of the breadth of this issue, many implications regarding public health are not well characterized. This has created a gap in understanding the interconnections between public health and ecosystem health systems and how ecosystem resiliency may affect public health.
To inform the development of a research agenda aimed at bridging the knowledge-to-action gap related to integrating public and ecological health to foster resilience, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop across three days that brought together interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners from the public health, natural resource management, and environmental protection communities to exchange knowledge, discuss critical gaps in understanding and practice, and identify promising research that could support the development of domestic and international policy and practice. Day 1 of the workshop, held on September 19, 2022, addressed the following question: What has been learned about how to integrate public health and nature into research, policy, and practice to foster resilience? Days 2 and 3, held on September 29 and 30, 2022, explored advancement opportunities in transdisciplinary and community-engaged scholarship to improve integration of public health and nature and inform policy and practice and opportunities to bridge the knowledge-to-action gap with strategies to translate knowledge into policy and practice. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.
112 pages
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8.5 x 11
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-70051-5
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-70052-3
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26896
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Integrating Public and Ecosystem Health Systems to Foster Resilience: A Workshop to Identify Research to Bridge the Knowledge-to-Action Gap: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Since its establishment in 1970, the mission of the Environmental Protection Agency is to protect human health and the environment. EPA develops regulations, ensures compliance, and issues policies, in coordination with state, tribal, and local governments. To accomplish its mission, EPA should be equipped to produce and access the highest quality and most advanced science. The Office of Research and Development (ORD) provides the scientific bases for regulatory and public health policies that have broad impacts on the nation's natural resources and quality of human life, and that yield economic benefits and incur compliance costs for the regulated community. In addition, ORD develops the agency core research capabilities, providing tools and methods for meeting current and anticipating future environmental challenges, such as the risks to health and the environment posed by climate change. Because challenges associated with environmental protection today are complex and affected by many interacting factors, the report points to the need for a substantially broader and better integrated approach to environmental protection.
This report calls for EPA ORD to pursue all of its scientific aims in a new framework—to apply systems thinking to a One Environment − One Health approach in all aspects of ORD work. To accomplish this, the report provides actionable recommendations on how ORD might consider incorporating emerging science and systems thinking into the agency research planning, so that ORD can become an increasingly impactful organization. The report identifies a number of high-priority recommendations for ORD to pursue in taking advantage of a broad range of advanced tools, in concert with collaborators in other federal agencies and the broader scientific community. Given the resource constraints, the report recognizes that ORD will have to make decisions about priorities for implementing its recommendations, and that ORD leadership is in the best position to set those priorities as implementation begins. The report concluded by stating that shifting to a systems-thinking approach will require renewed support from science leadership, enhanced strategic planning, investment in new and broader expertise and tools, and a reimagined and inclusive commitment to communication and collaboration.
162 pages
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8.5 x 11
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-68976-7
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-68977-5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26602
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Transforming EPA Science to Meet Today's and Tomorrow's Challenges. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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As part of its responsibilities under the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the air pollutants carbon monoxide, lead, oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter, ozone, and sulfur dioxide. EPA uses a "weight of evidence approach" to evaluate evidence from scientific studies and describe the causal relationships between these "criteria pollutants" and any adverse impacts on human health and on public welfare - including impacts on wildlife, water, forests, agriculture, and climate. The evaluation, called an Integrated Science Assessment, is used to inform standards setting associated with the criteria pollutants.
This report, produced at the request of EPA, describes EPAs and several other frameworks for inferring causality of health or welfare effects and the characteristics of evidence useful for forming a causal determination. The report concludes that EPAs causal framework is effective, reliable, and scientifically defensible, provided that key scientific questions are identified and a range of necessary expertise is engaged. More transparency in how EPA integrates evidence could improve confidence in their determinations, and more guidance is needed in the framework on how evidence should be examined for vulnerable groups (e.g., human sub-populations) and sensitive ecosystems or species.
186 pages
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7 x 10
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-69011-0
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-69012-9
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26612
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Advancing the Framework for Assessing Causality of Health and Welfare Effects to Inform National Ambient Air Quality Standard Reviews. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Regular use of sunscreens has been shown to reduce the risk of sunburn and skin cancer, and slow photoaging of skin. Sunscreens can rinse off into water where people are swimming or wading, and can also enter bodies of water through wastewater such as from bathing or showering. As a result, the ultraviolet (UV) filters - the active ingredients in sunscreens that reduce the amount of UV radiation on skin - have been detected in the water, sediment, and animal tissues in aquatic environments. Because the impact of these filters on aquatic ecosystems is not fully understood, assessment is needed to better understand their environmental impacts.
This report calls on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to conduct an ecological risk assessment of UV filters to characterize the possible risks to aquatic ecosystems and the species that live in them. EPA should focus on environments more likely to be exposed such as those with heavy recreational use, or where wastewater and urban runoff enter the water. The risk assessment should cover a broad range of species and biological effects and could consider potential interacting effects among UV filters and with other environmental stresses such as climate change. In addition, the report describes the role of sunscreens in preventing skin cancer and what is known about how human health could be affected by potential changes in usage. While the need for a risk assessment is urgent, research is needed to advance understanding of both risks to the environment from UV filters and impacts to human health from changing sunscreen availability and usage.
408 pages
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8.5 x 11
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-27283-1
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-27284-X
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26381
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Review of Fate, Exposure, and Effects of Sunscreens in Aquatic Environments and Implications for Sunscreen Usage and Human Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, with petroleum accounting for 90 percent of transportation fuels. Policymakers encounter a range of questions as they consider low-carbon fuel standards to reduce emissions, including total emissions released from production to use of a fuel or the potential consequences of a policy. Life-cycle assessment is an essential tool for addressing these questions. This report provides researchers and practitioners with a toolkit for applying life-cycle assessment to estimate greenhouse gas emissions, including identification of the best approach to use for a stated policy goal, how to reduce uncertainty and variability through verification and certification, and the core assumptions that can be applied to various fuel types. Policymakers should still use a tailored approach for each fuel type, given that petroleum-based ground, air, and marine transportation fuels necessitate different considerations than alternative fuels including biofuels, hydrogen, and electricity. Ultimately, life-cycle assessments should clearly document what assumptions and methods are used to ensure transparency.
236 pages
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8.5 x 11
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-27393-5
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-27394-3
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26402
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Current Methods for Life-Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop_in_brief
What could the future of environmental health sciences hold, and what steps might be taken now to guide the field's trajectory? To envision a future research enterprise that integrates environmental health sciences, biomedical science, prevention research, and disease-specific research across the continuum from fundamental discovery research through the application of this research to population health, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a workshop titled Towards a Future of Environmental Health Sciences on April 26-27, 2022. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussion of the workshop.
12 pages
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8.5 x 11
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-69106-0
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26639
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Toward a Future of Environmental Health Sciences: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop
Human health risk assessments provide the basis for public health decision-making and chemical regulation in the United States. Three evidence streams generally support the development of human health risk assessments - epidemiology, toxicology, and mechanistic information. Epidemiologic studies are generally the preferred evidence stream for assessing causal relationships during hazard identification. However, the available studies may be limited in scope, subject to bias, or otherwise inadequate to inform causal inferences. In addition, there are challenges in assessing coherence, validity, and reliability during synthesis of individual epidemiological studies with different designs, which in turn affects conclusions on causation.
Triangulation aims to address the challenge of synthesizing evidence from diverse studies with distinct sources of bias. Bias is a systematic error that leads to inaccurate study results. Tools for assessing risk of bias provide a structured list of questions for systematic consideration of different domains (such as confounding, selective reporting, and conflict of interest). These tools also provide a structured framework for identifying potential sources of bias and informing judgments on individual studies. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to understand and explore triangulation and opportunities to use the practice to enhance the EPA's human health assessments. The workshop was held virtually on May 9 and 11, 2022. This publication summarizes the key presentations and discussions conducted during the workshop.
64 pages
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8.5 x 11
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-68668-7
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26538
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Triangulation in Environmental Epidemiology for EPA Human Health Assessments: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop_in_brief
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Program identifies and characterizes the human health hazards of chemicals found in the environment. Human health risk assessments cover hazard identification as well as dose-response analyses for cancer and noncancer outcomes that are obtained from IRIS assessments. Human health risk assessments are highly important as they are used to inform a broad range of risk-related decisions across the agency. These assessments involve systematic reviews of the scientific literature, which obtain, evaluate, and summarize information to answer a research question in a transparent manner.
At the request of the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment within EPA's Office of Research and Development, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to explore opportunities and challenges in using advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science to enhance human health risk assessments. The workshop was held virtually on May 25 and 26, 2022. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.
12 pages
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8.5 x 11
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-68672-5
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26540
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Artificial Intelligence Tools and Open Data Practices for EPA Chemical Hazard Assessments: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop_in_brief
Animal testing is often used to assess the potential risks, uses, and environmental impacts of chemicals. New Approach Methods (NAMs) are technologies and approaches (including computational modeling, in vitro assays, and testing using alternative animal species) that can inform hazard and risk assessment decisions without the use of animal testing.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine convened a 1-day virtual public workshop on December 9, 2021, to address the potential utility and expectations for the future use of NAMs in risk assessment and to reflect on the challenges to their implementation. The workshop focused on how traditional toxicity studies are used in informing chemical safety decisions and variability and concordance of traditional mammalian toxicity studies. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.
11 pages
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8.5 x 11
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-29498-3
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26496
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. New Approach Methods (NAMs) for Human Health Risk Assessment: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program develops human health assessments that focus on hazard identification and dose-response analyses for chemicals in the environment. The ORD Staff Handbook for Developing IRIS Assessments (the handbook) provides guidance to scientists who perform the IRIS assessments in order to foster consistency in the assessments and enhance transparency about the IRIS assessment process. At the request of the EPA, this report reviews the procedures and considerations for operationalizing the principles of systematic reviews and the methods described in the handbook for determining the scope of the IRIS assessments, evidence integration, extrapolation techniques, dose-response analyses, and characterization of uncertainties.
110 pages
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7 x 10
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-09088-1
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-09092-X
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26289
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Review of U.S. EPA's ORD Staff Handbook for Developing IRIS Assessments: 2020 Version. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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A growing body of evidence has sounded the alarm that the biodiversity that supports and sustains life on Earth is at risk. Habitat destruction, resource exploitation, and climate change are among the many stressors that have put 1 million species under threat of extinction and sharply reduced the populations of many plant and animal species. While researchers and global leaders ramp up efforts to address this existential threat, the significance of species loss and the value of preserving biodiversity is not widely recognized by policy makers or the public. This booklet, produced by an international committee of experts, provides a publicly accessible overview of the many dimensions of biodiversity and why it's vital to the health of all life on the planet. The booklet also examines the causes of biodiversity loss and presents actions that can be taken from the individual to the global level to stop this decline.
52 pages
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8.5 x 11
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-27308-0
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26384
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Biodiversity at Risk: Today's Choices Matter. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Systematic review - a scientific investigation that focuses on a specific question and uses explicit, prespecified scientific methods to identify, select, assess, and summarize the findings of similar but separate studies - has become the foundation for assessing evidence to be used for decision making in a variety of health contexts, including health care and public health.
At the request of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), this publication reviews EPA's 2018 guidance document Application of Systematic Review in TSCA (Toxic Substances and Control Act) Risk Evaluations and associated materials to determine whether the process is comprehensive, workable, objective, and transparent.
82 pages
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-68386-6
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-68387-4
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/25952
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. The Use of Systematic Review in EPA's Toxic Substances Control Act Risk Evaluations. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Letter
In 2019, the National Toxicology Program (NTP) released the draft monograph Systematic Review of Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopmental and Cognitive Health Effects. Given the controversies surrounding the risks and benefits associated with fluoride exposure and to ensure the integrity of its evaluation, NTP asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to review the draft monograph. The 2020 report Review of the Draft NTP Monograph Systematic Review of Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopmental and Cognitive Health identified deficiencies in the analysis of various aspects of some of the studies and in the analysis, summary, and presentation of the data in the draft monograph, provided many suggestions for improvement, and concluded that NTP had not adequately supported its conclusions.
At the request of NTP, Review of the Revised NTP Monograph on the Systematic Review of Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopmental and Cognitive Health Effects determines whether substantive concerns raised in the 2020 report have been sufficiently addressed by revisions of the monograph and whether the evidence presented by NTP in the revised monograph supports its conclusions.
28 pages
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8.5 x 11
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-16269-6
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26030
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Review of the Revised NTP Monograph on the Systematic Review of Fluoride Exposure and Neurodevelopmental and Cognitive Health Effects: A Letter Report. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop_in_brief
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are human-made substances used in thousands of products, from medical devices to fire-fighting foam to oil- and stain-resistant coatings on carpets and packaging. They help make these products resistant to heat, water, stains, and grease. However, research over the past several decades has found evidence that PFAS persist in the environment for long periods of time, potentially leading to harmful human exposures.
To review federal agency human health PFAS research and identify research and data gaps, the Environmental Protection Agency, with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Defense, and Department of Health and Human Services, requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convene a workshop. The workshop, which was held on October 26-27, 2020, addressed topics including the federal context for PFAS research, human exposure, experimental toxicology, human health outcomes, and cross-cutting issues in PFAS risk assessment. This publication highlights the presentation and discussion of the workshop.
12 pages
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ISBN Ebook: 0-309-26070-1
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/26054
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. Federal Government Human Health PFAS Research Workshop: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Workshop
Humans are potentially exposed to more than 80,000 toxic chemicals in the environment, yet their impacts on brain health and disease are not well understood. The sheer number of these chemicals has overwhelmed the ability to determine their individual toxicity, much less potential interactive effects. Early life exposures to chemicals can have permanent consequences for neurodevelopment and for neurodegeneration in later life. Toxic effects resulting from chemical exposure can interact with other risk factors such as prenatal stress, and persistence of some chemicals in the brain over time may result in cumulative toxicity. Because neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders - such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and Parkinson's disease - cannot be fully explained by genetic risk factors alone, understanding the role of individual environmental chemical exposures is critical.
On June 25, 2020, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders hosted a workshop to lay the foundation for future advances in environmental neuroscience. The workshop was designed to explore new opportunities to bridge the gap between what is known about the genetic contribution to brain disorders and what is known, and not known, about the contribution of environmental influences, as well as to discuss what is known about how genetic and environmental factors interact. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.
86 pages
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6 x 9
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-68309-2
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-68310-6
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/25937
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Environmental Neuroscience: Advancing the Understanding of How Chemical Exposures Impact Brain Health and Disease: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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During the 20th century, the city of Los Angeles diverted surface water flowing into Owens Lake for water supply, transforming the large, closed-basin, saline lake into a small brine pool surrounded by dry playa. Under high winds, the exposed lakebed produced large amounts of airborne dust, resulting in the highest concentrations of airborne particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 10 micrometers or less (PM10) in the United States. Since 2000, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, at the direction of the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, has been constructing and implementing dust control measures on the dry lakebed, with the objective of meeting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Ambient Air Quality Standards for PM10 and the PM10 standards set by the state of California.
Many of the dust control measures used at Owens Lake require large amounts of water, energy, and maintenance to sustain their performance. Effectiveness and Impacts of Dust Control Measures for Owens Lake evaluates the effectiveness of alternative solutions for their degree of PM10 reduction and the extent that they reduce use of water in controlling dust emissions. This report considers the associated energy and environmental and economic impacts of these proposed measures and assesses their durability and reliability.
184 pages
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7 x 10
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-67079-9
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-67080-2
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/25658
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Effectiveness and Impacts of Dust Control Measures for Owens Lake. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Whether the result of an oil well blowout, vessel collision or grounding, leaking pipeline, or other incident at sea, each marine oil spill will present unique circumstances and challenges. The oil type and properties, location, time of year, duration of spill, water depth, environmental conditions, affected biomes, potential human community impact, and available resources may vary significantly. Also, each spill may be governed by policy guidelines, such as those set forth in the National Response Plan, Regional Response Plans, or Area Contingency Plans. To respond effectively to the specific conditions presented during an oil spill, spill responders have used a variety of response options—including mechanical recovery of oil using skimmers and booms, in situ burning of oil, monitored natural attenuation of oil, and dispersion of oil by chemical dispersants. Because each response method has advantages and disadvantages, it is important to understand specific scenarios where a net benefit may be achieved by using a particular tool or combination of tools.
This report builds on two previous National Research Council reports on dispersant use to provide a current understanding of the state of science and to inform future marine oil spill response operations. The response to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill included an unprecedented use of dispersants via both surface application and subsea injection. The magnitude of the spill stimulated interest and funding for research on oil spill response, and dispersant use in particular. This study assesses the effects and efficacy of dispersants as an oil spill response tool and evaluates trade-offs associated with dispersant use.
340 pages
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7 x 10
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-47818-9
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-47819-7
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/25161
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. The Use of Dispersants in Marine Oil Spill Response. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Biokinetic modeling provides a mathematical technique for estimating absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of chemicals, including particles and metals, in humans. Such models can be used to relate the amount of lead external exposure to the amount of lead found in the blood and other tissues at different points in time. At the request of the Department of Defense (DoD), Review of the Department of Defense Biokinetic Modeling Approach in Support of Establishing an Airborne Lead Exposure Limit evaluates whether the model used by DoD to derive airborne lead concentrations from blood lead levels is appropriate. This report also considers whether DoD's modifications to the model are appropriately justified, and whether the assumptions in and inputs to the model are reasonable.
48 pages
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paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-67192-2
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-67193-0
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17226/25683
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Review of the Department of Defense Biokinetic Modeling Approach in Support of Establishing an Airborne Lead Exposure Limit. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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