Environmental health decision-making is a multifactorial process that integrates research with ethics, economics, and risk assessment on a broad array of potentially toxic chemicals to prevent harmful exposures and unnecessary morbidity and mortality. This process leads to the development of regulatory and advisory guidelines at various environmental health agencies that have direct impact on human health. With 82,000 chemicals in use today, a clear and balanced decision making process is essential to weigh the scientific evidence and translate information to policy and regulation. This is especially difficult when data on many chemicals are incomplete, research results conflict, and disparities develop in the quality of current published research. This process can be complicated further by the dynamic nature of science in which new information, new technologies and improved study design continue to develop. Ensuring that research has appropriate balance and decisions appropriate longevity challenges scientists, policy makers and regulators.
This workshop addressed the scientific and ethical foundation of environmental health decision making. It included an overview of the principles underlying decision-making, the role of evidence and challenges for vulnerable populations, and ethical issues of conflict of interest, scientific integrity, and transparency. The workshop engaged science interest groups, industry, government, and the academic sector to facilitate understanding of decision making processes and best practices for environmental health research.
Environmental Health Science Decision Making: Risk Management, Evidence, and Ethics
is one in a series of workshops sponsored by the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine. The Roundtable was established to provide a mechanism for parties from the academic, industrial, and federal research perspectives to meet and discuss sensitive and difficult environmental health issues in a neutral scientific setting. The purpose is to foster dialogue, but not to provide recommendations.