Exposure Science in the 21st Century A Vision and a Strategy (2012) / Chapter Skim
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7 Realizing the Vision
7 Realizing the Vision
Pages 169-183
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From page 169... ...
The committee expanded the vision of exposure science to the eco-exposome. Adoption of this concept will lead to the development of a universal exposure-tracking framework that allows for the creation of an exposure narrative and the prediction of virtually all biologically-relevant human and ecologic exposures, leading to improved exposure information for making informed decisions to protect human and ecosystem health.
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From page 170... ...
The resulting data could be integrated with informatics capabilities for collection, storing, and analyzing the information gathered and used to test environmental-healthrelated hypotheses or to develop exposure-reduction strategies. The committee recognizes that realizing its vision requires an iterative approach that will initially develop and implement innovative tools to meet the urgent demands for exposure information today while establishing the infrastructure, including educational opportunities and study sections devoted to research, needed to transform the science fully over the next 20 years.
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From page 171... ...
To be effective, exposure science needs to adopt a systems-based approach that, to the extent possible, considers exposures from source to dose and from dose to source and considers multiple levels of integration, including time, space, and biologic scales in connection with multiple stressors in human and ecosystem populations. THE EXPOSURE DATA LANDSCAPE1 In the near term, exposure science needs to develop strategies to expand exposure information rapidly to improve understanding of where, when, and how exposures occur and their health significance.
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From page 172... ...
used data from the NHANES biomonitoring program and pharmacokinetic studies, integrated with in vitro toxicity data from specific chemical case studies, to examine the physiologic relevance of tested in vitro concentrations and thereby helped to inform dosimetry in evaluating ToxCast data. Efforts to determine how exposure models could be adapted to advance high-throughput chemical priority-setting and risk assessment have been hindered in part by absence of or lack of access to high-quality exposure data (Cohen Hubal et al.
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From page 173... ...
, which collects information relevant for assessing environmental exposures and associated health outcomes and develops the infrastructure needed for analyzing and integrating such information for public-health protection. That effort faces many challenges -- the network includes 23 states -- but the National EPHT Network constitutes the largest effort to track environmental exposures that are likely to contribute to disease.
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From page 174... ...
Through ExpoCast, EPA's Office of Research and Development aims to develop novel approaches and metrics for chemical screening and evaluation based on biologically relevant human exposures (Little et al.
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From page 175... ...
In addition, applying such concepts as the exposome effectively demands exposure information that is predictive of disease. The connection between exposure information for understanding early perturbations of biologic pathways and for predicting disease carries enormous promise for better ways of linking exposure and disease and ultimately for informing design of relevant studies.
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From page 176... ...
The research needs are organized into several broad categories: providing effective responses to immediate or short-term threats to health and the environment; supporting research on health and ecologic effects to understand past, current, and emerging outcomes; and addressing demands for exposure information from communities, government, and industry. The research needs are organized by priority within each category on the basis of the time that will be required for their development and implementation: short term denotes less than 5 years, intermediate term 510 years, and long term 1020 years.
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From page 177... ...
Identify, test, and deploy extant remote sensing, high-volume personal monitoring techniques, and source-to-dose model-integration tools that can quantify multiple routes of exposure (inhalation, ingestion, and dermal uptake) and obtain results that can, for example, be integrated with emerging methods (such as omics technologies)
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From page 178... ...
Addressing demands for exposure information among communities, governments, and industries with research that is focused, solution-based, and responsive to a broad array of audiences: Short term Develop methods to test consumer products and chemicals in premarketing controlled studies to identify stressors that have a high potential for exposure (intake fraction) combined with a potential for toxicity to humans or ecologic receptors.
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From page 179... ...
The primary objective of the Tox21 collaboration was to leverage resources and expertise. It included sharing databases and analytic tools, cataloging critical toxicologic data for key target organs, sponsoring workshops to broaden scientific input into strategy and direction, engaging the international community, and promoting scientific training and outreach.
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From page 180... ...
. In light of this new emphasis and the role that an understanding of environmental exposures can play in disease prevention, a rethinking of how NIH study sections are organized that incorporates a greater focus on exposure science would allow a core group of experts to foster the objectives of exposure-science research.
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From page 181... ...
The development of more user-friendly and less expensive monitoring equipment can allow trained people in communities to collect and upload their own data in partnership with researchers and thereby improve the value of the data collected and make more data available for purposes of priority-setting and to inform policy. One approach would be to develop pilot programs in which the communities in two large American cities are engaged in implementing a system of embedded and participatory sensors based on ubiquitous and pervasive technologies.
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From page 182... ...
2009. Biologically relevant exposure science for 21st century toxicity testing.
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From page 183... ...
2010. Endocrine profiling and prioritization of environmental chemicals using ToxCast data.
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