Project Code: EPA-USA-7
| Project Title | Evaluating Exposures by Tribes and how State Remediation Programs Address Source Reduction for Risk |
|---|---|
| Project Summary | To obtain information that would be useful for evaluating potential updates to EPA’s methods for risk assessment at Superfund sites where tribal members consumption of contaminated food or exposure from traditional tribal ceremonies is a concern to address in the human health risk assessment. |
| Country | United States |
| Agency | Environmental Protection Agency |
| DoS Office | N/A |
| Post | N/A |
| Section | N/A |
| Number of Interns | 1 |
The project would involve researching issues that arise when assessing risks from exposure to contamination at radioactively contaminated Superfund sites. The first part of the project would be obtaining additional information for two existing reports about plant and animal consumption specific to Native American communities; which are outside of the plant and animal categories that are already available in the current risk assessment models used for developing cleanup levels for residential gardens and farms at radioactively contaminated Superfund sites. A webinar about the completion of the existing reports opened a line of communication between many native communities and risk assessors that provided EPA with additional sources of information about plant and animal consumption by Native Americans communities. The second part of the project would be analyzing how these communities are exposed to contaminants in media other than soil and water such as ceremonial use of plants, dyes, and other atypical media. The third part of the project would be evaluating risk assessment procedures for state site remediation programs to determine how they address source reduction.
| Skill(s) |
|---|
| Analytical writing |
| Research |
None