EPA/600/F-11/001 | May 2011 | www.epa.gov/research
I Protect!
IT ALL STARTS WITH
f. I
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How does the U.S. EPA meet its mission to safeguard human health
and protect the environment?
It all starts with science.
EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) is forging a
path forward toward a sustainable future. ORD's research is
conducted under the following integrated research areas.
Air, Climate, and Energy
American communities face serious health and environmental
challenges from air pollution and the growing effects of climate
change, which are both intricately linked with energy options.
Building on 40 years of achievement in air pollution research that
has led to landmark outcomes—including healthier communities
and longer life expectancies—EPA researchers are exploring the
dynamics of air quality, global climate change, and energy as a
set of complex, yet interrelated challenges.
Safe and Sustainable Water Resources
Seeking sustainable solutions to the complex problems facing our
nation's drinking water and water resources is vital to supporting
healthy humans, ecosystems, and economies.
EPA's safe and sustainable water resources research provides
the science and innovative technologies the Agency—and the
nation—need to maintain drinking water sources and systems,
as well as to protect the chemical, physical, and biological
integrity of our water. EPA scientists and engineers help provide
sustainable water infrastructure, deliver safe drinking water,
manage stormwater, and remove and treat wastewater, allowing its
sustainable and safe reuse.
Sustainable and Healthy Communities
How can we meet the needs of today without compromising those
of future generations? More specifically, how can people protect
our shared environment in a way that fosters human health and
well-being, is socially just, and promotes economic prosperity?
Providing the science to answer the questions posed above
is at the heart of EPA's sustainable and healthy communities
research. Agency researchers and their partners from across a
wide spectrum of investigative fields are working together to form
a deeper understanding of the balance between the three pillars
of sustainability—environment, society, and economy. Their
transdisciplinary work will provide the decision tools and data that
communities need to make proactive, strategic decisions aimed at
a prosperous, more environmentally sustainable future.
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Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Chemical safety is a major priority of EPA research. Moving
toward a safer and more sustainable environment requires
producing new and existing chemicals in safer ways. It means
having the information and methods needed to make better-
informed, more-timely decisions about chemicals, many of
which have not been thoroughly evaluated for potential risks to
human health and the environment. EPA research on chemical
safety is geared to meet this challenge.
Using innovative approaches, EPA scientists and their partners
are embracing the principles of green chemistry to produce safer
chemicals. They are also integrating a diversity of scientific
disciplines to develop new prediction techniques, pioneering
the use of innovative technologies for chemical toxicity testing,
and designing tools to advance the management of chemical
risks. Chemical safety for sustainability includes research in
computational toxicology, nanotechnology, endocrine disrupting
chemicals, human health, and pesticides.
Human Health Risk Assessment
Human health risk assessment at EPA is focused on advancing
the understanding of the effects that exposure to pollutants have
on key biological, chemical, and physical processes that affect
human health.
What EPA scientists and their partners learn provides the
foundation for the Agency's actions to protect public health and
the environment. EPA's human health risk assessment efforts
generate health assessments that are used to determine the
potential risk to public health from exposure to environmental
contaminants.
Homeland Security
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001, EPA was
directed to tap its collective scientific and technical expertise
to help protect human health and the environment from the
effects of terrorist incidents. EPA was charged with helping
to decontaminate buildings and large public areas, protect our
nation's water supply, and rapidly provide reliable information to
key decision-makers, stakeholders and impacted communities
on analytical methods and human health risks.
EPA's homeland security research supports the Agency's
leadership role in remediating chemical, biological, or
radiological (CBR) contamination from weapons of mass
destruction. The program also conducts research on drinking
water and wastewater systems since the Agency is the sector
lead on water infrastructure. Many of EPA's homeland security
research products and technologies have broader environmental
and health protection applications.
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&EPA
EPA Research: providing elegant,
innovative solutions that help society meet
its needs while preserving the ability of
future generations to meet their own.
Meeting Challenges
From nanomaterials a billionth of a meter in size to global
climate dynamics, EPA scientists are investigating every scale
of our environment—and the links between the environment
and human health.
EPA conducts research that addresses the highest priority
science needs of the nation. The work performed by EPA
scientists and their partners from colleges, universities, and
other research organizations improves the quality of the air we
breathe, the water that sustains us, and the land upon which
we live. What they learn helps protect human health and build
vibrant communities.
"Science must be
the backbone
for EPA programs."
- EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson
A Foundation Built with Science
No other research organization in the world offers the depth and
breadth of scientific and engineering expertise represented by
EPA's workforce. Their work supplies the scientific foundation
that supports the Agency's actions to protect human health and
the environment.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Research and Development
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www.epa.gov/research
SCIENCE AT THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
&ER&
U ited States
Environmental Protec ion
Agency
EPA/600/F-11/001 I May2011lwww.epa.gov/research
Office of Research and Development (8101R)
Washington, DC 20460
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
$300
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