Identifying Emerging Contaminants

摘要

Imagine if the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and, by extension, its supporting industries could identify strategic risk management investments that both reduce the potential for adverse health effects and improve DOD's capability to achieve its mission. That's the basic idea behind a program initiated in 2006 by the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations & Environment. The Emerging Contaminants Directorate aims to help DOD more proactively address emerging contaminants. Emerging contaminants either do not have regulatory peer-reviewed human health standards or the regulatory standards are evolving due to new science, detection capabilities, or pathways. They are defined as chemicals or materials that have pathways to enter the environment and present potentially unacceptable human health or environmental risks.