Environmental Health Sciences Decision Making

[Guest guest]

Environmental Health Sciences Decision Making: Risk Management,

Evidence, and Ethics. Workshop Summary

Released On: January 09, 2009

http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3793/4897/61359.aspx

Eighty-two thousand chemicals—both natural and man-made—are used

today. Some of these chemicals do not produce notable adverse health

outcomes, but others can be toxic and harmful to anyone exposed.

Currently, we know very little about basic properties of the majority

of these chemicals and even less about the human health impact of

these exposures. Given the sheer number of chemicals in use today, it

can be difficult to balance their use with the protection of human

health. Regulation should create a clear and balanced decision-making

process for considering the scientific evidence and translating that

information into policy and regulation of these chemicals.

Effective decision-making processes are utilized by environmental

health agencies to develop guidelines for their own operations that

have a direct impact on human health. Environmental health decision

making is not solely based on scientific evidence, but also takes into

account ethics, economics, and other factors. Furthermore, there are

different approaches to decision making, such as how much precaution

needs to occur or how to weigh the evidence.

On January 15, 2008, the workshop Environmental Health Sciences

Decision Making: Risk Management, Evidence, and Ethics addressed

emerging issues in risk management, weight of evidence, and ethics

that influence environmental health decision making. The workshop

engaged science interest groups, industry, government, and the

academic sector to understand better decision-making processes and

best practices for environmental health research.

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12444.html

Summary

The workshop on Environmental Health Sciences Decision Making was

convened to inform the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences,

Research, and Medicine on emerging issues in risk management, “weight

of evidence,†and ethics that influence environmental health decision

making. This is the first in a series of discussions for the

roundtable to better understand the science needs in this area. The

remarks in the workshop summary are the views of the individual

presenters, panelists, or members and do not reflect a consensus of

those attending or the roundtable.

This workshop focused on the strategies used to make decisions,

whether they are based on the precautionary principle or cost-benefit

analysis. During the initial session of the workshop (reflected in

Chapter 1), the focus was on how complex decisions could incorporate

new technologies and the need for a more interdisciplinary approach.

The second session (Chapter 2) shifted the focus to the weights of

scientific evidence and how this information is used in the

decision-making process. The last session (Chapter 3) focused on the

ethics and value of scientific information that is used for decision

making. Speakers and participants discussed the issues of conflict of

interest, bias, and transparency.

For the field of public health, identification of a hazard is only the

first step in protecting individuals and the population at risk

against its harmful effects. Earlier strategies focused on one

chemical at a time and often assumed that individuals are static in

the environment, so that their behaviors and lifestyle choices were

not taken into account. However, as understanding of toxicology and

epidemiology has evolved, so has scientific understanding of the

complexity of environmental hazards. Risk assessment has moved beyond

the general assumption that a major cause of a problem (exposure) can

easily be identified and a solution generated. Thus, according to some

of the workshop participants, society is currently at a crossroads in

environmental health decision making, and there is a need to look at

the paradigm very carefully and think about what science can do to

improve the way those decisions are made.

Authors

Grant , deceased, (Chair), Partner,

Hogan & Hartson, Washington, DC

Lynn Goldman (Vice Chair), Professor,

Bloomberg School of Public Health, The s Hopkins University, Baltimore,

MD

M. Balbus, Director of Environmental Health Program,

Environmental Defense Fund, Washington, DC

Yank D. Coble, Immediate Past President,

World Medical Association, Neptune Beach, FL

Dentzer, Health Correspondent and Head of the Health Policy Unit,

The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Public Broadcasting Station, Arlington, VA

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, Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, Atlanta, GA

Fenske, Professor,

Department of Environmental Health, University of Washington School of

Public Health and Community Medicine, Seattle

Frumkin, Director,

National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances

and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

Atlanta, GA

Peggy Geimer, Corporate Medical Director,

Arch Chemicals, Inc., Greenwich, CT

Bernard Goldstein, Professor,

Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Graduate School

of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Myron on, Senior Health Adviser,

ExxonMobil, Inc., Irving, TX

Carol Henry, Retired Vice President for Industry Performance Programs,

American Chemistry Council, Arlington, VA

, Director,

National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, Washington, DC

Sharon Hrynkow, Associate Director,

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National

Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

, Graham Family Professor,

School of Public Health,

Director of the Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute,

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Floyd Malveaux, Executive Director,

Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc., Washington, DC

McCally, Executive Director,

Physicians for Social Responsibility, Washington, DC

Mark Myers, Director,

United States Geological Survey, Reston, VA

Philbert, Associate Dean for Research,

School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Lawrence Reiter, Director,

National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC

Leona Samson, Professor,

Center for Environmental Health Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, Cambridge

Sandifer, Senior Scientist for Coastal Ecology,

National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration, ton, SC

Santos-Burgoa, General Director for Equity and Health,

Secretaria de Salud de Mexico, Mexico D.F.

Spengler, Professor,

Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health,

Cambridge, MA

Suk, Acting Deputy Director,

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National

Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC

Louis Sullivan, President Emeritus,

Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA

Sullivan, Director,

Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University

of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL

Jennie Ward-, Executive Director,

Institute for Public Health and Water Research, Chicago, IL

, Acting Director,

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National

Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC

Harold Zenick, Director,

Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory,

Research Triangle Park, NC

Sharon Noonan Kramer

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