NCEA also acts as a catalyst for advances in the science of
risk assessment by bringing together federal, state and
local scientists,
industrial,
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NCEA works to
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NCEA Organization
NCEA is a multi-disciplinary team of about 200 scientists and support
staff trained in such diverse academic disciplines as ecology,
environmental science, epidemiology, microbiology, toxicology,
physical sciences, computer science, and engineering. NCEA
headquarters is located in Washington, DC, along with one of its three
research offices and the staff supporting the RAF. The other two
offices are located in Cincinnati, OH, and Research Triangle Park,
NC. NCEA conducts its extramural research through contracts,
cooperative agreements with universities and other nonprofit
organizations, and agreements with federal and state agencies. In
addition, NCEA provides temporary training opportunities for
undergraduate and graduate students and recent doctoral awardees.
NCEA Leadership
Overall leadership is provided by the following:
Peter Preuss, Ph.D., NCEA Director
George W. Alapas, DPA, Deputy Director for Management
John D. Vandenberg, Ph.D., Acting Associate Director for Health
Michael Slimak, M.S., Associate Director for Ecology
For more information about NCEA
Visit the NCEA website at
www.epa.gov/ncea or call 202-564-3322.
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA/600/F-00/008
August 2000
http://www.epa.gov/ncea
Research and Development (8601 D)
&EPA National
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Applying Science to
Improve Risk
Assessment
&
Environmental
Decision Making
Printed on Recycled Paper
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Who Are We?
The mission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is
to protect human health and to safeguard the air, water, and land upon
which life depends. EPA's Office of Research and Development
(ORD) conducts research to help ensure that efforts to reduce
environmental risks are based on the best available scientific
information.
The National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), a major
component of ORD with headquarters in Washington, DC, is EPA's
national resource center for human health and ecological risk
assessment. NCEA conducts risk assessments, carries out research to
improve the state-of-the-science of risk assessment, and provides
guidance and support to risk assessors.
NCEA occupies a critical position in ORD between (1) researchers in
other ORD components generating new findings and data and (2)
regulators in the EPA program offices and regions who must make
regulatory, enforcement, and remedial action decisions. As a result,
NCEA plays an important role as a consultant to EPA programs and
regions on the use of science in environmental decision making and
also influences the direction of environmental research.
What Is Risk Assessment?
Risk is the probability (or likelihood) that a harmful consequence will
occur as a result of an action. Risk is a function of hazard and
exposure. For risk to occur, there must be a source of risk (hazard)
and an exposure to the hazard. Risk assessment is the process by
which one attempts to evaluate and predict the likelihood and extent
of harm (in qualitative and quantitative terms) that may result from a
health or environmental hazard. Risk assessment provides essential
information about the severity and extent of specific environmental
problems for use in EPA risk management decisions.
Three Major Work Areas
NCEA supports EPA's mission through:
• Risk Assessment
Conducting assessments of national significance, for example,
assessments of dioxin, environmental tobacco smoke, mercury,
Human
Health Risk
Assessment
Ecological
Risk
Assessment
Global
Climate
Change
NCEA
www.epa.gov/ncea
Guidance and
Methods
Development
Education and
Outreach
Information Technologies
and Management
ublic and Peer
Involvement
PCBs, trichloroethylene, diesel emissions, and the consequences
of global climate change for selected U.S. regions and sectors.
Methods Research
Improving the state-of-the-science of risk assessment by devel-
oping scientifically sound, defensible risk assessment methods
which incorporate the latest advances in science. Examples
include Risk Assistant™, benchmark dose software, Environ-
mental Information Management System (EIMS), and inhalation
dosimetry methods.
Guidance and Support
Providing guidance, scientific information, consultation, training,
and support to other risk assessors and risk managers. Examples
include ecological and cancer risk assessment guidelines, IRIS
(Integrated Risk Information System), Exposure Factors Hand-
book, and the dioxin emissions inventory.
What Are We Working On Now?
NCEA's current activities include:
Characterizing the impacts on ecological and human systems,
whether they result from exposure to single, complex, or multiple
physical, chemical, or biological stressors.
Integrating approaches to cancer and noncancer effects in risk
assessments.
Developing risk assessment methods to account for sensitive
populations, particularly children.
Advancing the integration of ecological risk assessment with
human health assessment.
Assessing the consequences of global climate change on human
health and ecosystems.
Developing advanced science information management
systems such as EIMS (www.epa.gov/eims) to facilitate risk
assessment.
Developing new approaches to application of risk assessments in
decision making, such as comparative risk assessment.
Managing the IRIS program, which develops Agency-wide
assessments on the potential human health effects of exposure to
various chemicals in the environment (www.epa.gov/iris).
Administering and providing scientific support to EPA's Risk
Assessment Forum (RAF), which promotes Agency-wide
consensus on difficult or controversial risk assessment issues.
Influencing ORD's future research agenda by proposing key
research needs identified by risk assessments.
Accomplishments
Details about NCEA's accomplishments can be found on the website
at www.epa. gov/ncea. The website includes all of NCEA's published
documents, software, and databases since May 1997, as well as many
other key documents from prior years.
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