Science for Environmental Protection The Road Ahead (2012) / Chapter Skim
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3 Using Emerging Science and Technologies to Address Persistent and Future Environmental Challenges
3 Using Emerging Science and Technologies to Address Persistent and Future Environmental Challenges
Pages 54-106
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From page 54... ...
From the perspective of scientific advances relevant to the future of EPA, it will be increasingly important that all aspects of biologic sciences and environmental sciences and engineering -- including human health risk assessment, microbial pathogenesis, ecosystem energy and matter transfers, and ecologic adaptation to climate change -- be considered in an integrated systems-biology approach. That approach must also be integrated with considerations of environmental, social, behavioral, and economic impacts.
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From page 55... ...
The chapter has been organized in parallel to the challenges identified in Chapter 2. The main topics that will be discussed are tools and technologies to address challenges related to 1)
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From page 56... ...
Modeling, synthesis, and analysis of the data are necessary to generate new knowledge. Only through effective translation and communication of new knowledge can science truly inform policies that can generate actions to improve public health and the environment.
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TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES RELATED TO CHEMICAL EXPOSURES, HUMAN HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT New technologies will be important to EPA for identifying chemicals in the environment, understanding their transport and fate in the environment, assessing the extent of actual human exposures through biomonitoring, and identifying and predicting the potential toxic effects of chemicals. Current and emerging tools and technologies related to these topics are discussed in the sections below.
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However, without better knowledge of the environmental and human health risks of such low-dose exposures, the advanced detection capabilities do not necessarily help the agency to interpret the results or to protect human health and the environment more effectively. One example is mercury.
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Assessing the Extent of Human Exposures Through Biomonitoring Historically, exposure research in EPA has focused on discrete exposures -- in external or internal environments, concentrating on effects from sources or effects on biologic systems, and on human or ecologic exposures -- one pollutant or stressor at a time. Tools and methods have evolved for undertaking those specific challenges, but targeted approaches have led to sparse exposure data (Egeghy et al.
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From page 60... ...
Also, the integration of those technologies with population-based epidemiologic research can contribute to the discovery of major environmental determinants, dose-response relationships, mechanistic pathways, susceptible populations, and gene-environment interactions for health effects in human populations. Appendix C discusses some of the recent advances in -omics technologies and approaches, their implications for EPA, where EPA is at the leading edge of applying the technologies to address environmental problems, and where EPA could benefit from more extensive engagement.
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From page 61... ...
Risk communication strategies should include the latest approaches in social, economic, and behavioral sciences, as discussed in Chapter 5. Applications of Biomarkers to Human Health Studies Epidemiologic research plays a central role in assessing, understanding, and controlling the human health effects of environmental exposures.
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By building expertise and leadership in exposure assessment and by working in collaboration with other national and international efforts, EPA can play a principal role in the incorporation of environmental exposures into prospective cohort studies and thus contribute to the discovery of major environmental determinants, dose– response relationships, mechanistic pathways, and gene–environment interactions for chronic diseases in human studies.
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From page 63... ...
On the basis of technologic advances and new environmental challenges discussed throughout this report, it will be necessary for EPA to begin to make data standards flexible and adaptable so that it can use data that are less structured and less groomed. Health informatics has a strong history in the United States.
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From page 64... ...
The computational approach to predictive toxicology has many advantages over the current time-consuming, expensive, and somewhat unreliable paradigm of relying on high-dose in vivo animal testing to predict human responses to low-dose exposures. Although there is generally widespread agreement that the new panomics tools (that is, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, and related fields of the molecular sciences)
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From page 65... ...
. Example of Using Emerging Science to Address Regulatory Issues and Support Decision-Making: ToxCast Program In 2006, EPA began a new computational toxicology program aimed at developing new approaches to assess and predict toxicity in vitro (Judson et al.
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Thus, physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling, which will require some in vivo data, will continue to be an important part of hazard evaluation and risk assessment for chemicals that are identified as being potentially of concern on the basis of in vitro screening assays. Although advances in in vitro toxicity assessment continue to improve and will certainly decrease the number of animals required for in vivo testing, it is unlikely that in vitro tests will fully replace the need for in vivo animal testing for understanding the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of toxic substances because of the complex interplay between tissues and organs that are ultimately critical determinates of a toxic response.
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From page 67... ...
Example of Using Emerging Science to Address Regulatory Issues and Support Decision-Making: Predicting the Hazards of a New Material Nanotechnology is an emerging technology that poses new challenges for EPA. Deemed the next industrial revolution, nanotechnology is predicted to advance technology in nearly every economic sector and be a major contributor to the nation's economy.
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The measurement tools, rapid screening approaches, defined reference materials, and modeling and informatics approaches, advanced in an integrated fashion, can determine more rapidly what, if any, unique hazards are associated with this emerging technology. Second, what are the likely routes and venues of exposure to engineered nanomaterials?
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From page 69... ...
In order to have the capacity to address those tools, technologies, and challenges, it will need to have enough internal expertise to identify and collaborate with the expertise of all of its stakeholders in order to ask the right questions; determine what existing tools and strategies can be applied to answer those questions; determine the needs for new tools and strategies; develop, apply, and refine the new tools and strategies; and use the science to make recommendations based on hazards, exposures, and monitoring. TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES RELATED TO AIR POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE As discussed in Chapter 2, EPA's first goal in its 2011–2015 strategic plan is "taking action on climate change and improving air quality" (EPA 2010)
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From page 70... ...
to help to estimate emissions of greenhouse agents and conventional air pollutants, especially from dispersed or fugitive sources; and expanding its efforts to integrate socioeconomic and biophysical systems models for integrated assessment, including examination of air and climate effects of changing agriculture, energy, information, land-use, and transportation systems. Carbon-Cycle Modeling, Greenhouse-Gas Emissions, and Sinks EPA is engaged in a variety of science, engineering, regulatory, and policy development activities related to greenhouse-gas emissions, the global carbon cycle, and impacts of resulting changes on human health.
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are used for estimating uptake by monitoring changes in biomass stocks. A third approach involves spatially explicit modeling of ecosystem processes on the basis of weather, soil, land use, and land cover (Schwalm et al.
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. Example of Using Emerging Science to Address Regulatory Issues and Support Decision-Making: Remote Sensing to Monitor Landfill Gas Emissions Great progress has been made in reducing or eliminating releases of toxic substances from concentrated sources (also known as point sources)
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Novel application of tools and approaches from a variety of research disciplines can be used to address the complexity of mixtures, advance the scientific communities' understanding of exposures to the mixtures, and promote the design of relevant experiments and models to assess associated health risks. TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES RELATED TO WATER QUALITY As discussed in Chapter 2, there are several important drivers of water quality and water-quality policies for which new technologies and approaches can be instrumental in enhancing data-driven regulations.
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. Satellite-based assessments of water quality will probably be increasingly routine, especially with better integration and assimilation of in situ data and multiscale sensor data via empiric and physically based models (Matthews 2011)
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Assessment and control of waterborne diseases still rely on the ability to sample and quantify fecal indicator organisms and pathogens as part of the evaluation of water quality. The most recent advances in the detection of microorganisms in water include quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
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With the growing understanding of the ecosystem microbiome and its interaction with human health and the environment, it is becoming evident that the microbiome plays an important role in modulating health risks posed by broader environmental exposures. Understanding such interactions will have important implications for understanding individual and population susceptibility and the observed variability in risks posed by environmental exposures.
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2011 pyrosequencing (454 GS-FLX sequencer) resistance genes in bacterial communities exposed to antibiotic were identified Reclaimed and Viral DNA and RNA; tangential flow filtration, Over 50% of the viral sequences had Rosario et al.
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; most of the research programs under this act have yet to be realized, and improving public-health protection has been slow. EPA has begun to update water-quality standards, address health studies and swimmer surveys, and advance the use of new genomic technology for the rapid testing of water quality.
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Example of Using Emerging Science to Address Regulatory Issues and Support Decision-Making: Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment Quantitative microbial risk assessment had its beginnings in the 1980s; it is associated with the first publication of dose–response models (Haas 1983) and is now an accepted process for addressing waterborne disease risks and management strategies (Haas et al.
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EPA has not yet played a role in the partnership, but it could contribute to filling a gap in knowledge about wastewater treatment and monitoring as it relates to microbes and environmental and human health. TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES TO ADDRESS CHALLENGES RELATED TO SHIFTING SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SCALES Chapter 2 noted that current environmental challenges are expanding in both space and time and it emphasized that long-term data are needed to characterize such changes and to characterize the cause and the potential implications of different policy options.
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Appendix D provides additional background information on various important and rapidly changing tools and technologies in the field of information technology and informatics. Example of Using Emerging Science to Address Regulatory Issues and Support Decision-Making: Social Media EPA does substantial outreach to the public and to other agencies and research communities via such media as blogs and wikis.
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From page 82... ...
The idea behind regulatory crowdsourcing is that many areas of regulation today, from air and water quality to food safety and financial services, could benefit by having a larger number of informed people helping to gather, classify, and analyze shared pools of publicly accessible data. Such data can be used to educate the public, enhance science, inform public policy-making, or even spur regulatory enforcement actions.
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From page 83... ...
They include harnessing new technologies to engage broader communities along the lines of crowdsourced data collection, especially in the context of environmental monitoring, exposure assessment, health surveillance, and social behaviors; crowdsourced data classification and analysis; and crowdsourced environmental problem-solving. Crowdsourcing also provides an opportunity for EPA to gain a better understanding of the general sentiment of the public on issues that are of concern to EPA.
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From page 84... ...
The agency has been a contributing partner in national satellite-based mapping programs such as the MultiResolution Land Cover Program, the Coastal Change Analysis Program, and the Gap Analysis Program. It has also supported research and application efforts in remote sensing of water quality and air quality, notably in the use of aircraftborne sensors for local pollution and hazardous-substance detection and monitoring.
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2010) Increasing availability of multispectral imagery with very high spatial resolution (0.5–10 m)
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An example is the use of an intelligent real-time cyberinfrastructurebased information system called the Intelligent Digital Watershed to better understand the interactions and dynamics between human activity and water quality and quantity. Such an approach provides "1)
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Problems could be analyzed and solved by using an intelligent digital environmental data system. A human information system is also needed to archive land use, census, voting, planning, and other socioeconomic data relevant to environmental processes and management.
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Consideration of whether functional, cost-effective, and safer alternative manufacturing processes or materials exist that could reduce or eliminate risks while still stimulating innovation is not often part of the risk-assessment processes undertaken by EPA. Given the changing nature of chemical exposures in the United States, from large point sources to disperse, non-point exposures, the traditional tools of exposure assessment and control will likely be insufficient to prevent exposure to chemicals and it may be more effective to place a greater focus on preventing exposure through design changes.
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From page 89... ...
Green chemistry and engineering focuses on molecular design, Design for the Environment focuses on evaluating the safest chemistries and designs for a particular functional use, and pollution prevention focuses on reducing or eliminating emissions and waste in the manufacturing process. The three programs have evolved and changed over time and are overlapping in many ways, but they address different parts of the production process, from chemical design to the use of chemicals in product design to the application in manufacturing.
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Pollution Prevention Launched in 1990 through the Pollution Prevention Act (EPA 2011c) , EPA's pollution-prevention program was a paradigm shift for the agency in its focus on preventing the generation of waste (source reduction)
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From page 91... ...
However, in the switch, little research was undertaken on the alternative materials, which has the potential to lead to health and environmental concerns at a later time. Design for the Environment Established in 1992, EPA's Design for Environment program is a model of stakeholder-engaged product design to reduce the environmental effects of consumer products.
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EPA has developed detailed transparent criteria for evaluation for both programs. Green Chemistry and Engineering Green chemistry is another innovative approach to environmental protection that emerged from the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (EPA 2011d)
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For example, the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Program (established in 1995) has been used to reward success in green chemistry and to communicate the value of the approach for reducing effects and advancing commercial interests.
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For example, data on chemicals used in media and sensing can be important in setting priorities among chemicals, processes, and products for prevention actions and for measuring results of such actions; toxicogenomics and exposure data are critical for supporting design and evaluation of new technologies, comparing alternatives throughout their life cycles, and helping to avoid unintended consequences; and crowdsourcing and social-media tools provide a mechanism for sharing information about successful innovations and enhancing existing technical support and demonstration efforts. In addition to traditional environmental sciences, there is a critical need for behavioral and social sciences in advancing the development and adoption of safer chemicals, materials, and products.
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2011. A review of methods for analysing spatial and temporal patterns in coastal water quality.
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2002. Real-time water quality monitoring and regression analysis to estimate nutrient and bacteria concentrations in Kansas streams.
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1986. Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Bacteria-1986: Bacteriological Water Quality Criteria for Marine and Fresh Rec reational Waters.
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2011c. Pollution Prevention (P2)
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2005. Enteric viruses of humans and animals in aquatic envi ronments: Health risks, detection, and potential water quality assessment tools.
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2007. On-line water quality parameters as indicators of distribution sys tem contamination.
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2004. Assessing land use impacts on water quality using microbial source tracking.
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2003. Quantitative risk assessment of Cryptosporidium in surface water treatment.
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2011. Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches, 21st Annual Report.
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2010. Incorporating human dosimetry and exposure into high-throughput in vitro toxicity screening.
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2006. Rapidly measured indicators of recreational water quality are pre dictive of swimming-associated gastrointestional illness.
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2004. Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality: Vol ume 1 Recommendations, 3rd Ed.
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