This Web site was established to serve as a portal to the activities of the National Academies' Standing Committee on Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions.
About this Activity - [top]
Scientific discoveries, new tools and improved approaches have rapidly expanded the field of environmental health—the study of environmental influences on human health and disease. Evaluating the utility and importance of new findings derived from new tools and new approaches in guiding public health decisions can be a daunting challenge.
The National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) has asked the National Academies (NAS) to facilitate communication among government, industry, environmental groups, and the academic community about scientific advances that may be used in the identification, quantification, and control of environmental impacts on human health.
The standing committee will examine, explore, and consider issues on the use of emerging science for environmental health decisions. For this process, it will provide a public venue for communication among government, industry, environmental groups, and the academic community about scientific advances in methods and approaches that can be used in the identification, quantification and control of environmental impacts on human health. The topics covered will build on recent NRC reports on toxicity testing and toxicogenomics and will explore new developments in toxicology, molecular biology, bioinformatics, and related fields. Specifically, topics may include the use of information about gene-environment interactions in decisions regarding human health; the importance of environmentally mediated epigenetic modifications; use of mechanistic information about molecular pathways involved in toxicity; the impact of DNA repair processes on environmental health risks; application of technological advances in identifying chemical effects on gene, protein and metabolite expression; bioinformatics; computational and systems biology modeling; and methods for improving exposure assessment.
The Standing Committee will accomplish its task by convening public meetings of invited experts to inform the Committee and the sponsor about key scientific issues relevant to the use of emerging scientific information, knowledge, and approaches in regulation, disease prevention, education and personal choice, and clinical intervention and management of diseases caused and/or modified by environmental factors. Participants in the public meetings will include members of government, industry, environmental groups, and the academic community. These public meetings will also be made available to a broader audience via the internet, and highlights of the discussions will be included in regular newsletters prepared by staff. Specific topics will be selected by the standing committee after considering input from NIEHS and its federal partners. The standing committee itself will not issue reports, but the committee may develop recommendations for NRC consideration of future studies that would require separate approval and funding. Should the sponsor and committee agree that particular issues need more detailed treatment in the form of consensus studies or workshops with reports, such projects will be approved separately by the National Academies and will follow the usual NRC committee formation and report review procedures under the standing committee's oversight. The cost estimate provides for funding of the standing committee activity, including public meetings and newsletters.
About the Sponsor - [top]
This National Research Council activity is sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). NIEHS, located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is one of 27 research institutes and centers that comprise the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The mission of the NIEHS is to reduce the burden of human illness and disability by understanding how the environment influences the development and progression of human disease.
About Us / Contact - [top]
This activity is overseen by the Board on Life Sciences and the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the National Academies.
The National Academies - the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council - provide a public service by working outside the framework of government to ensure independent advice on matters of science, technology, and medicine. They enlist committees of the nation's top scientists, engineers, and other experts—all of whom volunteer their time to study specific concerns. The National Academies have a long history of convening groups of leading scientific experts to address a broad array of science and technology questions and concerns.
Address:
Standing Committee on Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions
Mail Stop 602
500 Fifth St., NW
Washington, DC 20001
Telephone: (202) 334-3600
E-mail: eseh@nas.edu
