Chemical Research to Inform Decision Making

EPA is committed to producing research results that address real-world problems, inform implementation of environmental regulations, and help EPA partners make timely decisions based on sound science. The research approach emphasizes partner engagement and strives to develop research  which informs a public health or environmental solution or decision. EPA research emphasizes:

• Planned partner engagement throughout the research process, starting with problem formulation and informing all elements of research planning, implementation, dissemination, and evaluation.
• Solutions-oriented research deliverables identified in collaboration with partners.
• Coordination, communication, and collaboration both among EPA researchers and between researchers and partners to develop integrated research that multiplies value to partners.
• Cooperation with partners to apply research results to develop solutions that are feasible, appropriate, meaningful, and effective.

Chemicals and Materials We're Researching

EPA's Safer Chemicals Research is transforming chemical risk-based decisions by conducting high-quality, innovative science. The pressing environmental and health challenge in chemical safety evaluations has been, and continues to be, a lack of sufficient information on most chemicals used in commerce, industry, and agriculture. Research results support the Agency, states, tribes, and other stakeholders in fulfilling shared objectives to protect human health and the environment.

• Substances we are researching, including PFAS, 6PPD-quinone, and endocrine disrupting chemicals

• Emerging Materials and Technologies Research

Risk Assessment

What is Risk? While there are many definitions of the word risk, EPA considers risk to be the chance of harmful effects to human health or to ecological systems resulting from exposure to an environmental stressor. Learn more about risk and risk assessments.

EPA Transcriptomic Assessment Product (ETAP)

EPA’s Safer Chemicals Research aims to address the challenge of needing more chemical information to make informed, risk-based decisions. Less than a quarter of the tens of thousands of chemicals in commerce--as well as those found in the environment, various waste streams, and the human body--have traditional toxicity or epidemiological data that can inform human health risk assessments. To address the challenge, researchers developed the ETAP: a novel human health assessment approach targeting chemicals lacking traditional toxicity testing data. Learn more about ETAP.

Children's Environmental Health Research

EPA conducts children’s environmental health research to inform public health decisions, to advance scientific understanding of potential early life susceptibility to environmental stressors, and to inform community efforts that create sustainable and healthy environments protective of children’s health. Learn more about ORD's children's health research.