The Environmental Protection Agency's Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) and Its Potential Use for Environmental Justice Efforts

摘要

Objectives. Our primary objective was to provide higher quality, more accessible science to address challenges of characterizing local-scale exposures and risks for enhanced community-based assessments and environmental decision-making. Methods. After identifying community needs, priority environmental issues, and current tools, we designed and populated the Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) in collaboration with stakeholders, following a set of defined principles, and considered it in the context of environmental justice. Results. C-FERST is a geographic information system and resource access Web tool under development for supporting multimedia community assessments. Community-level exposure and risk research is being conducted to address specific local issues through case studies. Conclusions. C-FERST can be applied to support environmental justice efforts. It incorporates research to develop community-level data and modeled estimates for priority environmental issues, and other relevant information identified by communities. Initial case studies are under way to refine and test the tool to expand its applicability and transferability. Opportunities exist for scientists to address the many research needs in characterizing local cumulative exposures and risks and for community partners to apply and refine C-FERST. Communities disproportionately affected by pollutants may have higher environmental exposures and health risks than other communities, as well as less access to the information and resources needed to mitigate these risks. The 2004 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee Cumulative Risk report 1 and the 2009 National Academy of Public Administration review of the Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) program 2 highlighted the difficulties communities and EPA regional offices have with characterizing disproportionate exposures or risks. Community involvement in prioritizing environmental health issues for specific areas or groups of people is crucial; community groups and members can supply local knowledge and interpret results in the context of local decision-making. To identify risks and prioritize risk mitigation actions, communities need user-friendly tools that provide both environmental exposure and health-related information. At the March 17–19, 2010 Symposium on the Science of Disproportionate Environmental Health Impacts in Washington, DC, EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson stated that the agency's science and tools should “translate into action.” The EPA wants to help address these needs by developing, providing, and applying science tools that (1) assemble and rely on the best available information, (2) identify communities at risk (or conversely, healthy communities) and hot spots or disproportionate impacts within communities, and (3) empower communities to access this information and thereby make their own informed decisions. The Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) was designed to support communities' environmental justice (EJ) efforts. The tool is being developed by the EPA's Office of Research and Development in the National Exposure Research Laboratory, which is conducting research to provide tools that enhance community-based cumulative risk assessments. 3 This research responded to requests from the Environmental Protection Agency's CARE program, the Office of Environmental Justice, EPA regional offices, and communities themselves, as well as recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, 4 National Academy of Public Administration, 2 and other agencies. To ensure that these tools are scientifically sound, research is necessary to account for the many factors that may affect human exposure and health risks in a community, including chemical and nonchemical factors. C-FERST is considered the “flagship tool” of the EPA National Exposure Research Laboratory's cumulative and communities human exposure research program ( http://www.epa.gov/heasd/communities ) because it incorporates what is known about high-priority environmental issues, provides a venue for communicating cutting-edge science and solutions to communities, and helps to identify knowledge gaps. The program's overall goal is to develop, apply, and provide to communities and individuals tools for advancing the science and understanding cumulative risk (cumulative risk assessment is defined by the National Research Council [NRC, 2009] as “evaluating an array of stressors [chemical and non-chemical] to characterize—quantitatively to the extent possible—human health and ecologic effects, taking into account factors such as vulnerability and background exposures.” 4 (p224) One high-priority research area focuses on developing and communicating human exposure and cumulative risk science and characterizing sources, concentrations, human ex

机译：目标。我们的主要目标是提供更高质量，更易获得的科学，以应对表征当地规模的暴露和风险的挑战，以增强基于社区的评估和环境决策。方法。在确定了社区需求，优先环境问题和当前工具之后，我们与利益相关者合作，按照一系列已定义的原则设计并填充了社区重点暴露和风险筛选工具（C-FERST），并在以下方面进行了考虑：环境正义。结果。 C-FERST是一个地理信息系统和资源访问Web工具，正在开发中，用于支持多媒体社区评估。目前正在开展社区一级的风险暴露和风险研究，以通过案例研究解决特定的本地问题。结论。 C-FERST可用于支持环境司法工作。它结合了研究以开发社区级数据和对优先环境问题以及社区确定的其他相关信息的建模估计。最初的案例研究正在进行中，以完善和测试该工具以扩展其适用性和可移植性。科学家有机会解决许多研究需求，以表征当地累积的暴露和风险，社区合作伙伴有机会应用和完善C-FERST。受污染物影响最大的社区可能比其他社区具有更高的环境暴露和健康风险，并且减少缓解这些风险所需的信息和资源的机会也较少。 2004年环境保护局（EPA）国家环境司法咨询委员会累积风险报告 1 和2009年美国国家公共行政学院对新环境社区行动（CARE）计划的审查 2 < / sup>强调了社区和EPA区域办事处在描述不成比例的暴露或风险方面遇到的困难。社区参与对特定地区或特定人群的环境卫生问题进行优先排序至关重要;社区团体和成员可以在当地决策的背景下提供当地知识并解释结果。为了识别风险并确定风险缓解措施的优先级，社区需要用户友好的工具，这些工具应提供环境暴露和健康相关信息。在2010年3月17日至19日于华盛顿特区举行的不成比例的环境健康影响科学研讨会上，EPA行政长官Lisa P. Jackson表示，该机构的科学和工具应“转化为行动”。 EPA希望通过开发，提供和应用科学工具来帮助满足这些需求，这些科学工具（1）汇总并依赖最佳可用信息，（2）识别处于风险中的社区（或相反，健康的社区）以及热点或不成比例的影响（3）授权社区访问此信息，从而做出自己的明智决定。社区重点暴露和风险筛选工具（C-FERST）旨在支持社区的环境正义（EJ）工作。 EPA的国家暴露研究实验室研究与开发办公室正在开发该工具，该实验室正在开展研究，以提供增强基于社区的累积风险评估的工具。 3 该研究响应了来自环境保护局的CARE计划，环境司法办公室，EPA区域办事处以及社区本身，以及美国国家科学院的建议， 4 国家公共行政学院， 2 和其他机构。为了确保这些工具在科学上是正确的，必须进行研究以解释可能影响社区人类暴露和健康风险的许多因素，包括化学和非化学因素。 C-FERST被认为是EPA国家暴露研究实验室的累积和社区人类暴露研究计划（http://www.epa.gov/heasd/communities）的“旗舰工具”，因为它结合了关于高优先级环境的知识问题，为与社区交流前沿科学和解决方案提供了场所，并有助于发现知识差距。该计划的总体目标是开发，应用并向社区和个人提供工具，以促进科学发展和了解累积风险（国家研究委员会[NRC，2009]将累积风险评估定义为“评估一系列压力源[化学和非化学]尽可能定量地描述人类健康和生态影响，并考虑到脆弱性和背景暴露等因素。” 4（p224）一个高度优先的研究领域侧重于关于发展和交流人类接触和累积风险科学以及表征来源，浓度，人类

The Environmental Protection Agency's Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) and Its Potential Use for Environmental Justice Efforts

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