United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development National Exposure Research Laboratory Research Abstract Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) Goal 8 Annual Performance Measure 27 Significant Research Findings: HEDS: The Human Exposure Database System Scientific In the past, data from scientific studies resided with the study investigator and only Problem and summaries were available as published in the scientific literature. If one could Policy Issues obtain the data from an investigator, the data were usually in a unique format that required conversion to use with computer models or needed to be combined with data from other sources for statistical analyses. Also, the data typically had very little documentation with it; thus, the quality of the data were rarely known. Frequently, study data were only used to answer the specific question(s) for which the data was collected and then the data were locally archived and would not have normally been made readily available to other investigators to answer additional questions or used to generate hypotheses and/or provide guidance for future studies. The Human Exposure Database System (HEDS) was developed to provide researchers a readily accessible electronic database for storing validated study data with the corresponding quality assurance data. HEDS provides a vehicle to address the issues with data consistency, quality, and availability. Research HEDS is an Internet based system to house and distribute human-exposure-related Approach data, such as questionnaire responses, activity and diet diaries, and chemical measurements, from studies conducted by EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) and other exposure researchers. HEDS was designed to work with the Office of Research and Development's Environmental Information Management System (EIMS), using links to EIMS to provide metadata (e.g., short summaries for each study and its data sets) and searching capabilities. The validated study data in HEDS will be from peer reviewed study designs that include acceptable data quality assurance. Study documents, such as quality assurance plans and sample collection and analysis procedures, are also provided along with the data. By interfacing HEDS with EIMS, an abstract for each data set and document is made available with links to the original document or data set. A data dictionary and code table are provided with each data set to show what information is provided in the data set and to explain the numeric codes. The data are provided in text and database formats which can be used by most commercial software packages. These features provide the data to the scientific community in an easy- to-use format with enough information to evaluate the quality and potential uses of the data. HEDS currently contains data from the three National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) pilot studies which were conducted in EPA Region 5, Maryland, and Arizona. ------- Results and The data in HEDS are expected to be used to: Impact provide inputs for exposure assessments. identify sub-groups of the general population that may be highly exposed or particularly susceptible to chemicals in their environment, relate known pollution sources to the actual exposures that people experience. provide a baseline of the range of exposures to chemicals in the general population, which can be used to compare to other investigations conducted at particular sites of concern or from specific routes, evaluate and improve the accuracy of models developed to predict exposure of people to chemicals. generate research hypotheses and test different techniques for performing future multimedia, multipathway human exposure studies. Ultimately, EPA anticipates that the information in HEDS will help risk assessors, individuals, communities, states, EPA, and other organizations understand the potential health risks from various chemicals and decide whether steps to reduce those risks are needed. Research Collaboration and Research Products Future Research The measurement and questionnaire databases, metadata, and study documentation are available on the Human Exposure Database System (HEDS) website at http ://www.epa. gov/heds/ An example of a recent publication from this study is as follows: Robertson, G.L., Quackenboss, J.J., Hem, S.C., and Thompson, C.B. The human exposure database system (HEDS)-putting the NHEXAS data on-line. Presented at: 11th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Exposure Analysis, Charleston, SC, November 4-8, 2001. Data from additional NERL and other EPA sponsored exposure studies, such as the Arizona Border Study, the Children's Total Exposure to Pesticides and Other Persistent Organic Pollutants (CTEPP) Study, and the EPA-sponsored Particulate Matter Panel studies will be added to HEDS as they become available. Contacts for Questions and inquiries can be directed to the principal investigator: Additional Carry Croghan Information jj.S. EPA, Office of Research and Development National Exposure Research Laboratory MD E205-01 Research Triangle Park, NC, 27711 Phone: 919-541-3184 E-mail: croghan.carrv@epa.gov Federal funding for this research was administered under an Interagency Agreement DW479275-01 between the U.S. EPA and Government Services Administration. ------- |