Exposure Science in the 21st Century A Vision and a Strategy (2012) / Chapter Skim
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4 Demands for Exposure Science
4 Demands for Exposure Science
Pages 90-105
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From page 90... ...
The U.S. Toxic Substances Control Act and the Green Chemistry Initiative of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (CA DTSC 2008)
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From page 91... ...
Previous opportunities to reduce uncertainties through the collection of more and better exposure data have been missed, including opportunities in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's April 1986 Chernobyl nuclear incident, which spewed radionuclides over a large swath of Europe (Normile 2011)
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From page 92... ...
In many health studies the lack of accurate exposure information has led to the use of questionnaires and qualitative assessments in place of more robust quantitative observations. Demand for health and environmental science information includes the need for more and improved data on broad issues, such as direct stressortarget relationships -- for example, air pollution and health and the multiple, complex, and sometimes indirect linkages among environmental exposures and ecosystems, water and land resources, and the built environment.
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From page 93... ...
-- intended to assess the direct effects and feedbacks between environmental change and biologic processes. A similar NSF program, the Long Term Ecological Research network, has been in operation since 1980 (LTER 2012)
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From page 94... ...
The problem that arises from this demand is the need to provide measures of environmental exposures that are consistent in statistical and causal terms with measures used to characterize exposures to nonenvironmental risk factors -- such as smoking, unsafe sex, and micronutrient deficiencies. Consistent measures of both environmental and nonenvironmental exposures are needed if meaningful policy comparisons are to be made.
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From page 95... ...
. Global Climate Change Global climate change is expected to bring increasingly frequent extreme weather and local environmental changes that have the potential to affect human health, ecologic health, and key resources in several direct and indirect ways (Patz et al.
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From page 96... ...
As world leaders consider options for changing the portfolio of future energy sources, there is growing demand for assessments of effects associated with the various options, including pollutant exposures, and a need to develop strategies to minimize the effects. Sustainability Sustainability describes both a process to ensure and a goal of ensuring long-term human well-being and ecologic health (NRC 2011)
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From page 97... ...
Organizations, activities, and tools encourage consumers to consider alternative products and behaviors that can reduce such effects. Consequently, market demands for exposure science include the need for better and more extensive insight into how human activities, including consumption habits, contribute to pollutant emissions and how the emissions contribute to human and ecologic exposures.
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From page 98... ...
Green Chemistry Green chemistry or, more broadly, green commerce includes the design of products and processes with a focus on sustainability with regard to resource consumption and energy use, often accompanied by an effort to limit the human and ecologic health footprint (CA DTSC 2008) .1 Green commerce encounters the same challenges as other businesses as practical considerations of profitability often require use of more available resources according to supply and demand; that is, as the feedstock diminishes and prices rise, manufacturers seek alternatives.
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From page 99... ...
Major societal demands for exposure science include the understanding and assessment of the effects of urbanization and urban land-use modifications and of changes in manufacturing, consumption, and transportation. Urbanization and Land-Use Changes Projections of changes in urbanization and land use indicate both increased need for and more systematic means of exposure surveillance in the coming decades.
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From page 100... ...
Other Societal Concerns There are many other societal concerns that demand accurate and more comprehensive exposure information. For example exposures to biologic stressors in water supplies and food.
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From page 101... ...
Policy-makers and regulators have a demand for exposure information to inform the concerned public about products and exposures, to establish emergency preparedness and response, to set priorities for research and regulation among chemicals or stressors of concern, and to allocate funding and set policies for managing knowledge-integration systems to address health and ecosystem protection. Adding to the policy demands for exposure science are the community demands for access to technologies that allows community members to work with scientists, to generate their own exposure data, and to more effectively participate in the environmental policy and regulatory processes (Brown et al.
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From page 102... ...
2010. Progress Report of the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force: Recommended Actions in Support of a National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, October 5, 2010 [online]
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From page 103... ...
2009. Exposure information for ozone, PM and toxic air pollutants in environmental health research: Current opportunities and future directions.
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From page 104... ...
Pp. 1435-1493 in Comparative Quantification of Health Risks: Global and Regional Burden of Disease due to Selected Major Risk Factors, Vol.
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From page 105... ...
2012. Environmental Health Inequalities in Europe: Assessment Report.
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