Basic Information
- What is EPA's National Environmental Assessment Center?
- What is risk?
- Where do I submit my comments on that new product?
- Where's that report?
What is EPA's National Environmental Assessment Center?
The EPA National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), is part of the Office of Research and Development (ORD) (Read more about NCEA's place in the EPA). The mission of the center is to provide guidance about how pollutants may impact our health and the environment. This is an important piece in the risk assessment process between the ORD bench scientist and EPA's program and regional office managers who are making regulatory, enforcement, and remedial-action decisions.
EPA's workforce is the strength behind its products. EPA's environmental assessment employees are highly trained and are recognized internationally for their expertise. This diverse staff includes biologists, chemists, ecologists, engineers, epidemiologists, geneticists, statisticians, and toxicologists. Many of these employees have worked for EPA since its inception in 1970 while others are fresh out of graduate school and bring new expertise and enthusiasm for EPA's mission.
What is risk?
You can find the answer to this question through the EPA Risk Portal - what is risk? Additionally the related questions are also addressed:
- What is a human health risk assessment ?
- What is an ecological risk assessment ?
- What are the latest risk guidelines, risk related databases and risk tools the agency is using?
Where do I submit my comments on that new draft product?
Public comments on draft reports, databases or models may be submitted and reviewed using the e-Government Regulations.gov Web site. From this site, select Environmental Protection Agency and the keyword (use the specific docket ID identified in the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) Federal Register and listed on the report web site) to provide your comment(s). Comments sent prior to external peer review meetings will in most cases be given to reviewers for the discussion. Comments sent after the peer review meeting will be considered by the EPA. [See the full list of EPA's Enviromental Assessment Draft Reports]
Where's that report ?
EPA's environmental assessment center uses a database to manage all the reports published as far back as 1970. The simplest way to find reports are from the A to Z list of products, recent additions page or searching the database. If you still can't find the report, feel free to contact us for more assistance.
Media Contacts
Carolyn Hubbard: Media Liaison |
Kacee Deener: Acting Communication Director |
Link to the Environmental Assessment Newsroom and Recent Additions
Organization
As its name implies, the primary mission of the center is to conduct risk assessments. Through risk assessments, EPA scientists provide decision makers with comprehensive summaries of the most current information available concerning pollutants and their consequences for human and ecological health. Thus, the center occupies a critical position between scientists in its sister organizations within EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) and regulators in the EPA program offices and regions who make regulatory, enforcement, and remedial action decisions. In this position we can exert strong influence over ORDs research agenda to assure that it addresses research needs identified by risk assessments.
In addition to conducting risk assessments, the center for environmental assessment carries out research to improve the state-of-the-science of risk assessment and provides guidance and support to risk assessors. A major goal is to perform the research necessary to develop an accessible, seamless, common methodology for combined human health and ecological risk assessments, so that decision-makers at all levels will have the information requisite to take into account threats to both human and ecosystem health.
View the National Center for Environmental Assessment's Organizational Chart or read more about the individual offices: