CHAPTER ONE:
CONDUCTING HEALTH ASSESSMENTS
AND CONSULTATIONS
INTRODUCTION
T
he Division of Health Assessment and Consultation conducts public health
assessments and related activities, issues public health advisories, and
provides public health consultations. The health assessment process conducted
by this division is often the trigger for a variety of other ATSDR activities and
public health recommendations that are shown below.
Health
Education
Medical
Health
Monitoring
Advisories
Exposure
Health
Health
Investigations
Surveillance
Asssessment
Process
Health
Tox
Studies
Profiles
Exposure/
Research
Disease Registries
A key component of the public health assessment process is exposure
evaluation. For people to possibly suffer adverse effects or disease associated
with hazardous substances, they must be first exposed to them. In 1991, the
National Research Council recognized that public health assessments could be
an important source of information about the nature and extent of
environmental exposure to hazardous substances. The National Research
Council pointed to the general lack of scientifically based information on how
substances move from a source to expose persons living near sites. In response,
ATSDR initiated a series of activities intended to better determine the factors
that influence how substances reach nearby populations, estimate the extent of
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