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Potential new approaches for children's inhalation risk assessment
Michael Firestone1, Babasaheb Sonawane, Stanley Barone
1Office of Children's Health Protection and Environmental Education, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC 20460, USA. firestone.michael@epa.gov
Insights
Current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) risk assessments inadequately address children's inhalation exposure. This study examines existing guidelines and proposes methods for better assessing life-stage-specific risks in children.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Health
- Risk Assessment
- Pediatric Toxicology
Background:
- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is enhancing risk assessments to include children's unique vulnerabilities and exposures.
- Childhood development involves stages with heightened sensitivity to environmental agents and increased exposure potential.
- Existing EPA guidance addresses some aspects of children's health, but inhalation exposure, dose, and risk assessment for children remain underdeveloped.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the adequacy of current EPA practices for assessing children's health risks from inhaled environmental chemicals.
- To explore novel methodologies for accurately evaluating life-stage-specific differences in children's exposure and susceptibility.
- To identify potential improvements for incorporating children's unique inhalation exposure and susceptibility into EPA risk assessments.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing U.S. EPA guidelines and policies concerning children's unique susceptibilities to inhaled environmental chemicals.
- Analysis of approaches used by state agencies, such as the California Environmental Protection Agency, and literature examples for incorporating children's unique susceptibilities and exposures.
- Discussion of potential methods for addressing inhalation exposure and susceptibility in U.S. EPA risk assessments.
Main Results:
- Current U.S. EPA risk assessment practices lack explicit consideration of children's specific inhalation exposure, dose, and risk.
- Existing guidelines partially address children's susceptibilities but do not fully cover inhalation scenarios.
- State agencies and research literature offer examples of methods to better incorporate children's unique factors.
Conclusions:
- There is a need to develop and implement improved methods for assessing children's health risks from inhaled environmental chemicals.
- Future EPA risk assessments should explicitly account for life-stage-specific differences in children's inhalation exposure and susceptibility.
- Integrating insights from state-level initiatives and research is crucial for advancing children's environmental health protection.
Abstract:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) practice of risk assessment is moving toward more thoroughly considering children's unique susceptibilities and exposure potential. Childhood is assessed as a sequence of life stages that reflects the fact that as humans develop, windows of susceptibility may appear that lead to enhanced sensitivity to exposure of environmental agents, while changes in behavior and physiology may increase exposure and dose. The U.S. EPA developed guidance in the past few years that addresses some aspects of increased susceptibility and exposure and dose. However, when it comes to considering inhalation exposure, dose, and risk, current U.S. EPA practice does not explicitly address children. The purpose here is to begin studying the adequacy of practice for children's health and to explore possible next steps in developing new methods to more accurately assess life-stage-specific differences. The existing guidelines and policies used to address potentially unique susceptibilities of children for inhaled environmental chemicals were considered, as well as what may be learned from examples of approaches that have been applied by state agencies (such as the California Environmental Protection Agency) or in the literature, to incorporate potentially unique susceptibilities and exposures to children. Finally, there is a discussion of possible approaches for considering inhalation exposure and susceptibility in U.S. EPA risk assessments.
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