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“This week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it has engaged the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to coordinate a Workshop on Federal Government Human Health Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Research. Aggressively addressing PFAS has been an active and ongoing priority for the EPA and entire federal family. As outlined in EPA’s PFAS Action Plan, this collaborative workshop will ensure coordination of PFAS research across the federal government.
‘EPA is working across the federal family to ensure that our research on the potential health concerns associated with PFAS is properly coordinated, complementary, and avoids unnecessary duplication,’ said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. ‘This workshop will highlight the depth of PFAS research across the federal government and identify data gaps.’
The National Academies will organize a two-day virtual public workshop to review federal agency research on PFAS and identify research and data gaps. The workshop should take place in the fall. Following the workshop, a report will be assembled summarizing the views of participants on how to ensure that the federal research program for PFAS is robust and focused on addressing the highest priority human health concerns. The proceedings will be made available to participating federal agencies and to the public.
Federal agencies are spending significant resources to better understand PFAS chemistries, sample collection, compound identification and quantification, toxicities (including health effects in humans), fate and transport, occurrence and exposure, environmental removal and degradation, and treatment and disposal. U.S. federal agencies conducting research on PFAS include USDA, EPA, DoD, HHS (National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, ATSDR, CDC, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration), U.S. Department of the Interior (U.S. Geological Survey), U.S. Department of Transportation, and Department of Homeland Security. The scientific and technical input resulting from this workshop will help to ensure the robustness of Federal research programs in this important area…”