Abstract

The study of various associations between environmental exposures and adverse human health effects has benefited greatly from environmental epidemiology. However, there is a perception that it frequently fails to provide sufficient quantitative risk assessment information. The Health and Environmental Sciences Institute launched a project in 2017 to address this concern by bringing together representatives from government agencies, industry,and academia from the epidemiology, exposure science, and risk assessment communities to discuss the use of environmental epidemiology for quantitative risk assessment and public health decision making. As part of this project,experts in epidemiology, exposure science, toxicology, statistics, risk assessment, and one meeting with funding agencies were held to look into incentives and obstacles to using epidemiological data to its full potential in quantitative risk assessment. Prior to the meetings, workshop participants were given a set of questions, and two case studies were used to back up the discussion.