&EPA
United States
Office of Research
and Development
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The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) relies on sound science
to safeguard both human health and
the environment. The Office of
Research and Development (ORD) is
the scientific research arm of EPA.
ORD's leading-edge research helps provide the solid
underpinning of science and technology for the Agency.
ORD conducts research on ways to prevent pollution,
protect human health, and reduce risk. The work at
ORD laboratories, research centers, and offices across
the country helps improve the quality of air, water, soil,
and the way we use resources. Applied science at ORD
builds our understanding of how to protect and
enhance the relationship between humans and the
ecosystems of Earth.
ORD Mission
• Perform research and development to identify,
understand, and solve current and future
environmental problems.
• Provide responsive technical support to EPA's
mission.
• Integrate the work of ORD's scientific partners
(other agencies, nations, private sector
organizations, and academia).
• Provide leadership in addressing emerging
environmental issues and in advancing the
science and technology of risk assessment and
risk management.
As part of our mission, ORD has identified eight
research areas considered as highest priority. They are:
Air
Drinking Water
Ecosystem Assessment and Restoration
Global Change
Human Health Protection
Water Quality
Pollution Prevention and New Technologies
Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs)
For more information on these priority areas please visit
www.epa.gov/osp/myp.htm
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Although much progress has been made in recent
years, air pollution continues to be a widespread
human health problem in the United States.
EPA's air quality program aims to ensure that the
air in every American community is safe and
healthy to breathe.
ORD's air research program provides the
scientific foundation for EPA's air quality
regulations for particulate matter, ground-level
ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur
dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and lead.
In addition, ORD conducts
research to help understand and
manage the risks for these
compounds. We also do research
and assessments on hazardous air
pollutants that may be harmful to
people. As part of this work, ORD addresses the
potential effects of these compounds on susceptible
populations such as children, the elderly, and
people with respiratory illnesses. The air research
program includes clinical and laboratory studies,
epidemiologic studies, air quality model
development, characterization of emission sources,
and control technologies.
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Drinking Water
"he American public enjoys safe drinking water.
In the United States, utilities and other providers
select the best water sources, treat water to control
contaminants, and maintain sound water
distribution systems. Waterborne threats such as
typhoid fever and cholera have been virtually
eliminated. However, some public
health concerns remain from
pathogens and chemical
contaminants.
des a strong
scientific foundation for EPA
decisions that help protect the public from
drinking water contamination. ORD's research
groundwater. These sources can be contaminated
with many different chemicals, including natural
substances such as arsenic and man-made
3ounds nice pe
nermore, the
process of disinfecting water itself creates a
number of potentially toxic chemical byproducts.
This research is especially significant to infants,
children, and people with weakened immune
systems who are particularly sensitive to some
waterborne contaminants.
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Assessment
and Restoration
Healthy ecosystems are a complex and delicate
balance of living things and their environment.
Robust, sustainable ecosystems can involve plants,
animals, people, soil, water, energy, and nutrients.
When this balance is disturbed by contaminants,
human activity, or invasive species, the ecosystem
is threatened.
ORD's ecosystem assessment and restoration
research program provides information to
understand the scale of a problem
within a threatened ecosystem,
need for action, causes of harm,
and success of mitigation and
restoration efforts. We use
highly sophisticated computer
models to help interpret data on the
causes of ecological degradation. To quantify
the risks to ecosystems, ORD scientists develop
and use advanced risk assessment techniques. This
research helps to design cost-effective protection
and restoration strategies.
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Global Change
Global change can have local impact. Even
slight shifts in temperature, water currents,
forests, and atmospheric gases—whether the
result of human activity or natural trends—
can have far-rec
The U.S. Global ChanL
Research Program is an
integrated, multi-agency effort
that helps the world understand,
assess, predict, and respond to
global change. ORD is one of more than
10 federal entities participating in this program.
The research program is assessment-oriented.
It focuses on th
ai conseque
climate variability and climate chanee on
human health, air quality, water quality, and
ecosystem health. ORD investigates the
influence of human activities in global climate
change, as well as adaptation options that can
build resilience to chanee.
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Environmental pollution poses potential risks to
the general public. Part of assessing those risks is to
address how they affect the most vulnerable groups
among us, such as children and communities that
rely heavily on subsistence fishing, hunting, and
farming. ORD conducts human health risk
assessment research to assess and characterize more
accurately hazards to humans from exposure to
pollutants.
ORD leads research efforts to
ensure that pesticide residues
on food do not pose a health
hazard. Other areas of
research focus on how
chemicals and pesticides are
absorbed through the skin, ingested, or
inhaled. A major component of this research is
understanding how these compounds travel
through air and water and cause potentially
harmful exposure to humans. The result of this
research is one piece of the puzzle that provides
scientifically defensible information for the
Agency's decision-making process.
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Water Quali
ater resources is
vital to the ecology, human health, and the
economy. By investigating ways to clean up
contaminated waterways, sites, and groundwater,
ORD scientists are wo
the quality of our water resources.
and restore
Water quality
techniques used by the EPA's Office of Water to
protect the nation's freshwater and coastal
resources.
ORD's research assesses
damage to aquatic systems and
identifies sources of that dama—
The research also helps foreca:
the ecological, human health, and
economic outcomes of the possible
'
solutions to water quality problems.
Because the sources of contamination are as
important as its effects, ORD also investigates
methods to clean up contaminated groundwater
and sediments.
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Pollution Prevention
and New
Technologies
EPA recognizes that pollution prevention, rather
than remediation, is the optimal solution to
environmental problems. ORD fosters innovative
design and production techniques to minimize or
eliminate industrial waste. This helps create
fundamental changes in the production and
delivery systems that move goods and services to
the American consumer and develops sustainable
approaches for using natural resources. ORD also
supports programs to develop new technologies to
clean up contaminated sites.
Working with industry, universities,
and other agencies, ORD tests
commercial-ready technologies
developed to prevent or solve
environmental problems. Examples
include nonpolluting metal finishing
processes, inexpensive ways to produce
polymers using less hazardous solvents, and
methods to remove chlorinated solvents from
contaminated groundwater. Cleaning up Superfund
sites using innovative technologies evaluated
under this strategy has saved billions of dollars.
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Endocrine Disrupting
Chemicals (EDCs)
in the last decade, the scientific community has
become increasingly concerned that humans and
wildlife are harmed bv exposure to chemicals that
interact with the endocrine (hormonal) system.
Chemicals that interfere with the body's natural
hormones are called endocrine disrupting
chemicals (EDCs). A broad range of
environmental contaminants, including some
pesticides and industrial chemicals, are either
known or suspected EDCs.
ORD scientists are developing
methods to detect the endocrine
disrupting a
and industrial chemicals. ORD is
developing computer-based tools
for predicting a chemical's endocrine
activity based on its molecular structure.
Using innovative research methods, investigators
are studying the magnitude of effects of, and
sources and levels of exposures to, EDCs in humans
and a variety of wildlife species. Engineers are
developing ap
or reducing e
EDCs from certain sources, such as sewage
treatment effluents and contaminated sediments.
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Future Researc
Directions
Rapid developments in science and technology
present us with opportunities to develop innovative
solutions to environmental problems. Looking to the
future for trends that may harm human health and
the environment is critical to setting future research
directions. In ORD, foresight techniques are used to
plan research strategically by identifying potential
issues before they lead to environmental damage.
Nanotechnology, computational toxicology,
biotechnology, information technology,
and genomics are just a few of the
innovative areas of science that
EPA is exploring both for their
benefits and potential unintended
consequences.
100 Jim
For example, ORD is working with its
scientific partners to examine the environmental
benefits of nano-based materials. Nanotechnology, the
science of designing materials at the molecular level,
offers environmental benefits that range from
designing cleaner manufacturing processes that
minimize waste and reduce pollutants to new methods
for detecting and cleaning up environmental hazards.
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Newport,
NHEERL
Corvallis, OR
Narragans'
NHEERL
Edison, NJ
NRMRL
Ada, OK
NRMRL
Gulf Breeze, F>
NHEERL
Grosse Me, Ml
NHEERL
Cincinnati, OH
Research Triangle Park, NC
Athens, GA > NERL 4
NERL NHEERL
NRMRL
Chapel Hill, NC
NHEERL
.ARCH LABORA,
AND CENTERS
ORD is organized into three national laboratories, three
national centers, and two offices located in 14 facilities
around the country and in Washington, DC. These labs,
centers, and offices provide information and technical
support to EPA program offices, regions, state/municipal/
tribal governments, and other agencies performing
environmental research, assessment, and risk management.
ORD scientists also collaborate with private-sector partners
to address important environmental issues.
www.epa.gov/ord
provides information to increase the accuracy of
EPA's exposure and risk assessments for factors that stress the
environment, including chemicals, living organisms,
radiation, changes in land and water use, and changes in
climate. NERL also evaluates innovative technologies to
improve exposure assessment and provides information on
stressor sources, pollutant transport and fate, and human
exposure to pollutants.
www.epa.gov/nerl
The National Health and Environmental
iPA's
focal point for scientific research on the effects of
contaminants and environmental stressors on human health
and ecosystem integrity. NHEERL's research is used by EPA
and other government agencies to identify and understand
the processes that affect our health and environment. The
research helps to evaluate the risks that pollution poses to
humans and ecosystems.
www.epa.gov/nheerl
The National Risk
conducts research on ways to
prevent and reduce risks from pollution that threaten human
health and the environment. NRMRL investigates methods
to prevent and control pollution to air, land, and water, and
to protect water quality in public water systems.
NRMRL also assesses methods to clean up contaminated
sites, sediments, and groundwater, prevent and control indoor
air pollution, and restore ecosystems.
www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL
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The National Center
is EPA's national resource center
for human health and ecological risk assessment. NCEA
develops new methods for risk assessment, and applies those
methods to the cutting-edge issues that the Agency faces.
NCEA functions as a critical link between researchers within
ORD and EPA decision makers. 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.
www.epa.gov/ncea
The National Center for Enviro.
supports innovative environmental
research by scientists in the academic community. NCER's
Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program funds
competitive research grants and graduate fellowships in
numerous environmental science and engineering
disciplines to complement ORD's in-house research.
Through this same competitive process, NCER helps small
businesses address critical technology needs through its
Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program.
www.epa.gov/ncer
Center (NHSRC)
manages, coordinates, and supports
homeland security research and technical assistance efforts.
This research develops the scientific foundations to prevent
or manage threats. Efforts focus on developing methods to
clean up contaminated buildings (the Safe Building Program),
protecting the nation's drinking water supply (the Water
Protection Program), and improving risk assessment
techniques (the Rapid Risk Assessment Program).
www.epa.gov/ordnhsrc
two offices th<
itical role in the
They are the
Office of Science Policy (OSP) and the Office of Resources
Management Administration (ORMA). OSP is responsible
for science integration, coordination, and communication in
areas that include providing science support to EPA in the
regulatory decision-making process and management of
ORD's multi-year research planning. OSP also manages the
ORD Regional Science Program, staffs the EPA Science
Policy Council, and integrates tribal and environmental
justice issues into ORD's decision-making process.
www.epa.gov/osp
The Office of Resources Management Administration
(ORMA) ensures that ORD's laboratories and centers
have the resources necessary to conduct world-class
environmental research. ORMA provides management and
administrative services and independently evaluates and
measures progress in meeting ORD's strategic goals. ORMA
also manages www.epa.gov/ord which is a useful portal
for finding information about ORD and its products and
research activities.
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