The Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) provides the science needed to understand the complex interrelationship between people and nature in support of assessments and policy to protect human health and ecological integrity.
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What We Do
Organization
Divisions
What We Do
The Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) develops human health and environmental assessments that support EPA program and regional policies and decisions. CPHEA conducts toxicological, clinical, ecological, epidemiological, and citizen science studies to assess the impact of environmental exposures to chemicals and other stressors on healthy individuals, populations, and ecosystems, emphasizing people and ecosystems most susceptible to the adverse effects of such exposures.
The Center provides human health and ecological research to advance scientific assessments. CPHEA provides research, statistical methods, analysis, and modeling that helps interpret scientific study results and inform assessments or programmatic decisions. This includes laboratory and field studies, pharmacokinetic and ecological modeling, dose- and stress-response analysis, that help evaluate the results of studies and determine public health or ecological impact. CPHEA’s efforts advance the state-of-the-science of risk assessment by developing methods and guidelines. CPHEA advances the principles of translational science characterized by problem formulation and research to inform risk assessment, policy decisions, interventions, and evaluation through Solution-Driven Research Projects.
CPHEA examines the human health and the environment at individual, community, regional, and national scales to improve the prediction of human health, environmental and ecological effects to enable informed risk reduction and remediation. The Center evaluates and applies environmental indicators of ecological and human systems to inform EPA programs, help establish programmatic priorities and assess environmental impacts. CPHEA develops systems-informed scientific approaches and conducts research to address complex environmental problems, providing information and solutions that lead to improvements in environmental condition, ecosystem service production, and human health and well-being. Additionally, the Center evaluates scientific knowledge gaps and identifies, and implements research needs to improve risk assessment and risk reduction. CPHEA’s efforts advance through innovative research and predictive modeling links between environmental condition and the health and well-being of people and society.
The Center manages the emergency response Provisional Advisory Levels (PALs) program including updating values, and translation and outreach to Agency partners. CPHEA provides technical assistance to the Region and Program Offices, states and tribal nations, and other risk assessors who perform site-specific or chemical-specific assessments, helping to evaluate scientific knowledge gaps in portions of the risk assessment process. CPHEA additionally interfaces with Federal and nonfederal organizations relative to Center programs, products, and services.
Organization
Immediate Office
Wayne Cascio, Director
Kay Holt, Deputy Director
Divisions
The Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA) organization is made up of the following divisions:
