CEQ’s report on long-term environmental research
k$h
Richard M. Dowd
On March 18 the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released a report on long-term environmental research and development. The report summarizes the findings of four panels of scientists representing varied disciplines and it addresses long-term environmental research issues to identify needs and recommend priorities. The first of the four subjects is “Human Health Impacts and Their Mitigation.” This part of the report covers human physiologic and genetic diversity, molecular epidemiology, the consequences of exposure to health hazards, and the effects on human health of current and emerging technologies. Second, in “Geochemical and Hydrologic Processes and Their Protection,” the report covers surface water and groundwater processes and pollution, land-soil processes and pollution, atmospheric-oceanic processes and pollution, and research on toxic substances and hazardous wastes in various environmental media. The third part of C E Q s report, “Environmental Impacts and Their Mitigation,” discusses global and biosphere effects, local ecological effects. ecological diversity, and the environmental consequences of current and emerging technologies. Finally, “Monitoring Assessments and Environmental Management” includes the topics of data generation, collection, analysis, and inter-
0013.936X/85/09190393$01.50/0
pretation; risk assessment techniques; modeling and forecasting techniques; and approaches to environmental management. The report expresses concerns about new technologies; major global stresses, such as the reduction of species diversity and the build-up of certain pollutants in the global atmosphere; and ways to identify human health effects at increasing levels of sensitivity. Each panel identified monitoring as a key issue. The report recommends improvement in the nation’s environmental monitoring, both as a basis for research programs and as a necessary element in making decisions about environmental management. Other recommendations The report:$ other recommendations include the need to investigate the nation’s institutional ability to support long-term environmental research, which is a reflection of some panel members’ unhappiness with the present situation. It also points out the need for an accelerated program in molecular epidemiology, which will advance understanding of the relationships between disease end points and exposure to various environmental contaminants. An integration of field research into current or planned work in hazardous waste site clean-ups and remedial actions was another area covered. The report states that there is a need to identify genetic factors, among others, that contrihute to individual differences in susceptibility to environmental agenu. It calls for the definition of underlying general scientific principles for evaluating the toxicity of mixtures of chemicals and highlights a need to anticipate the effects of emerging technologies-particularly biotechnology and microelectronics-on human health and the environment.
0 1985 American Chemical Society
The report calls for greater attention to fundamental research in freshwater. ocean, and atmospheric cycles to examine processes that account for ecological variation and for the ways pollutants interfere with those processes. It recommends that long-term pmgrams (of 10 years or more) be conducted to measure baseline conditions, including potential contaminants and relevant global biogeochemical cycles. Finally, the report states that there is a lack of research on the role of intermedia pollutant transfers and transformations, especially in areas where environmental management practices tend to reflect a single-medium viewpoint. Although the report does not include a discussion of these programs’ costs, a review of the document reveals that many of its recommendations will require either additional funding or significant reprogramming of existing research allocations.
Risk assessments a concern Several of the CEQk panels discussed quantitative risk assessments. Although there is a consensus that such assessments are important in making environmental management decisions, it is agreed that more research is necessary to aid understanding of basic biological processes. These include the basic pharmacodynamic and environmental mechanisms of toxic effects. Particular attention should be given to improving the scientific basis for risk assessments and to the valid extension of risk assessment methodology to human health effects other than cancer, such as systemic toxicity.
Richard M. Dowd, Ph.D., is a Washington, D. C., consultant to Environmental Research and Technology, Inc.
Fnviron. Sci. TeChMI..
Vol. 19. No. 5. 1985 393
