EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ATSDR is the lead public health agency responsible for implementing the health-related
provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability
Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund. ATSDR's primary goals are
to identify people at health risk because of their exposure to hazardous
substances in the environment,
to evaluate relationships between hazardous substances in the environment and
adverse human health outcomes, and
to intervene to eliminate exposure of health concern and prevent or mitigate
adverse health outcomes related to hazardous substances in the environment.
ATSDR accomplishes these goals through its work in four major program areas:
(1) health assessment and consultation, (2) toxicological research, (3) health studies, and
(4) health education and promotion. This report highlights ATSDR's accomplishments
and activities conducted in fiscal year (FY) 1999, with a chapter devoted to each of
activities from FY 1999 are summarized below.
CONDUCTING HEALTH ASSESSMENTS AND CONSULTATIONS
During FY 1999, ATSDR's Division of Health Assessment and Consultation and its
Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These activities included issuing 196 public
health assessment documents for 151 sites and issuing one public health advisory. The
division also conducts health consultations, which provide advice on specific questions
about human health hazards associated with hazardous waste sites. The agency
provided 408 health consultations in FY 1999.
oversight for participating states to conduct health assessments, consultations, and
studies, as well as to provide health education in communities near hazardous waste
sites. Staff in participating state health departments use ATSDR guidance for conducting
public health assessments, consultations, and studies. Through the partnership, state
staff members receive training and experience in assessing the public health impact of
hazardous waste sites and have access to ATSDR's scientific resources. In FY 1999, the
program provided about .5 million to 23 states. ATSDR also provided about 0,000 to
five states under a similar program that allows states to conduct health assessments and
consultations and health education activities.
Of the sites that ATSDR and states assessed in FY 1999, 106 had completed exposure
pathways. ATSDR estimates that about 1.4 million people live within a 1-mile radius of
these sites with completed exposure pathways, which are sites at which people might be
in contact with hazardous substances. Water and soil were the environmental media
most often associated with sites where completed exposure pathways were identified.
Inorganic substances, found at 30% of sites assessed in FY 1999, and volatile organic
1
Previous Page
