GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH IN THE 21ST CENTURY
FROM GOVERNMENTAL REGULATION TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
WORKSHOP SUMMARY
Myron Harrison and Christine Coussens, Rapporteurs
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
Support for this project was provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health (Contract N01-OD-4-2193, TO#43); National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Contract No. 200-2000-00629, TO#7); National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Contract 0000166930); National Health and Environment Effects Research Laboratory and National Center for Environmental Research, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Contract 282-99-0045, TO#5); American Chemistry Council (unnumbered grant); ExxonMobil Corporation (unnumbered grant); and Institute for Public Health and Water Research (unnumbered grant). The views presented in this book are those of the individual presenters and are not necessarily those of the funding agencies or the Institute of Medicine.
This summary is based on the proceedings of a workshop that was sponsored by the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine. It is prepared in the form of a workshop summary by and in the names of the editors, with the assistance of staff and consultants, as an individually authored document.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
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ROUNDTABLE ON ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES, RESEARCH, AND MEDICINE
Paul Grant Rogers (Chair), Partner,
Hogan & Hartson, Washington, D.C.
Lynn Goldman (Vice-chair), Professor,
Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Jacqueline Agnew, Professor,
Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
Jack Azar, (Roundtable member until December 2004), Vice President,
Environment, Health and Safety, Xerox Corporation, Webster, NY
John Balbus, Director of Health Program,
Environmental Defense, Washington, D.C.
Roger Bulger, Advisor to the Director,
National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
Yank D. Coble, Immediate Past President,
World Medical Association, Neptune Beach, FL
Henry Falk, Director,
Coordinating Center for Environmental and Occupational Health and Injury Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA
Baruch Fischhoff, Howard Heinz University Professor,
Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
John Froines, Professor and Director,
Center for Occupational and Environmental Health, Southern California Particle Center and Supersite, University of California, Los Angeles
Howard Frumkin, Director,
National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (NCEH/ATSDR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA
Michael Gallo (Roundtable member until December 2005), Professor,
Environmental and Community Medicine,
Director,
NIEHS Center of Excellence, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry, Princeton, NJ
Paul Glover, Director General,
Safe Environments Programme, Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Bernard Goldstein, Professor,
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Charles Groat, (Roundtable member until August 2005), Director,
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA
Myron Harrison, Senior Health Adviser,
ExxonMobil, Inc., Irving, TX
Carol Henry, Acting Vice President for Industry Performance Programs,
American Chemistry Council, Arlington, VA
John Howard, Director,
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington, D.C.
Peter Illig, Consultant,
Association Internationale pour l’ Ostéosynthèse Dynamique, Trauma Care Institute, Nice, France
Richard Jackson, Adjunct Professor,
Environmental Health Services Division, University of California at Berkeley
Lovell Jones, Director,
Center for Research on Minority Health, and
Professor,
Gynecologic Oncology, University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
Alexis Karolides, Senior Research Associate,
Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, CO
Fred Krupp (Roundtable member until December 2005), President,
Environmental Defense, New York, NY
Patrick Leahy, Acting Director,
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA
Donald Mattison, Senior Advisor to the Directors of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and Center for Research for Mothers and Children,
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD
Michael McGinnis (Roundtable member until December 2004), Senior Vice President,
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, NJ
James Melius, Administrator,
New York State Laborers’ Health and Safety Fund, Albany
James Merchant, Professor and Dean,
College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City
Sanford Miller (Roundtable member until December 2004), Senior Fellow,
Center for Food and Nutrition Policy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Alexandria, VA
Dick Morgenstern, Senior Fellow,
Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C.
Alan R. Nelson (Roundtable member until December 2005), Special Advisor to the CEO,
American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine, Fairfax, VA
Kenneth Olden (Roundtable member until December 2005), Director,
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC
John Porretto, President,
Sustainable Business Solutions, Dewees Island, SC
Peter W. Preuss (Roundtable member until December 2005), Director,
National Center for Environmental Research, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
Lawrence Reiter, Director,
National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
Carlos Santos-Burgoa, General Director for Equity and Health,
Secretaria de Salud de Mexico, Mexico D.F.
David Schwartz, Director,
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC
Michael Shannon (Roundtable member until December 2005), Associate Professor of Pediatrics,
Harvard Medical School,
Clinical Director,
Pediatric Environmental Health Center, Children’s Hospital Boston, MA
Jennie Ward-Robinson, Executive Director,
Institute for Public Health and Water Research, Chicago, IL
Samuel Wilson, Deputy Director,
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC
Harold Zenick, Acting Director,
Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC
Study Staff
Christine M. Coussens, Study Director
Dalia Gilbert, Research Associate
Erin McCarville, Senior Project Assistant (until May 2005)
Jenners Foe-Parker, Intern (Fall 2004)
David Tollerud, Project Assistant (from October 2006)
Division Staff
Rose Marie Martinez, Board Director
Hope Hare, Administrative Assistant
Christie Bell, Financial Associate
Reviewers
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Margaret A. Breida, Senior Manager, Standards and Technical Groups, American Industrial Hygiene Association, Fairfax, VA
Dennis Devlin, Director of Toxicology and Environmental Sciences, Department of Biomedical Sciences, ExxonMobil Corporation, Annandale, NJ
Katherine Herz, International Life Sciences Institute, Washington, DC
Leyla McCurdy, Senior Director of Health and Environment, National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, Washington, DC
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Melvin H. Worth, M.D., Scholar-in-Residence, Institute of Medicine, who was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
Contents
Preface
The Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine was established in 1988 as a mechanism for bringing various stakeholders together to discuss environmental health issues in a neutral setting. The members of the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine come from academia, industry, and government. Their perspectives range widely and represent the diverse viewpoints of researchers, federal officials, and consumers. They meet to discuss environmental health issues that are of mutual interest (though sometimes very sensitive). The basis of these discussions illuminates both current and emerging issues for the field of environmental health.
There is a growing awareness of significant environmental health issues, both domestically and worldwide. Scientists and policy makers are grappling with complex issues such as climate change, sustainability, and obesity—a diverse set of challenges that continue to have health impacts. Meeting these challenges requires dialogue from a number of stakeholders. The problems did not come from one activity, and the solutions are not going to come from one source (e.g., government or academia). Government alone clearly does not have the financial and other resources to solve all the health-related problems. Further gains in environmental health are going to be met through collaborations and partnerships. This does not mean that each stakeholder group needs to play a role in every problem, but we need to move forward collectively. This has been more apparent as disasters such as the tsunami in Indonesia, hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast, and SARS. There is a need for stakeholders to bring their expertise to the table.
In this workshop, the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine discussed the role of industry in environmental health. The workshop looked at programs that work in concert with governmental regulations and tried to focus on how these programs can improve environmental health. One point that was made a number of times during the workshop is that we are going to need these programs at the global level. They are
needed because of the complexity of the societal problems; and in order to begin to address these issues, we are going to need input from all stakeholders.
During the workshop, the Roundtable members, speakers, and participants focused some of their attention on the complexity of the management of chemicals. Each stakeholder group echoed the need for a sound management system, but the discussion focused on the details of the current and proposed systems for managing the use of chemicals in commerce. The challenge for any government entity is that over 70,000 chemicals are in use today. Understanding the potential health and environmental effects is a challenge for a developed country and not possible for developing countries that lack financial resources.
As one speaker noted, regulations can spawn innovation. Thus it is clear that regulations are an important and necessary part of the plan to improve environmental health. However, regulations are only one part of the picture. There are many limitations to relying solely on governments and regulations. First, governments are limited to their own jurisdiction. On an international arena, there is reliance on treaties and agreements, but they are often difficult to enforce. Second, many governments lack the resources to continue to make gains in environmental health. Developing countries often do not have a stable government or tax base. Even developed countries have competing interest for the tax funding that makes funding of health projects infeasible. Finally, regulations take time to implement and do not incentivize companies to exceed the regulatory standards.
This is especially true for the business community which has a global reach that transcends political boundaries. In this workshop, the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine looked at some of the programs and challenges for engaging industry through the shareholders’ call for social responsibility.
This summary captures the presentations and discussions of the workshop. The views expressed in this report are those of individual speakers and participants, and do not necessary reflect the views of the Institute of Medicine, the members of the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine, or the sponsors of this activity.
Paul G. Rogers
Roundtable Chair