thousands of candidate contaminants about which little is known, those chemi- 

 cals most likely to pose the greatest danger to our environment must be care- 

 fully selected for detailed research. More specifically, as the agency charg- 

 ed with the stewardship of the nation's living resources, the Fish and Wild- 

 life Service must employ rational guidelines to assist in determining re- 

 search priorities for contaminants that are threats to wildlife and fishery 

 resources of greatest value. A research approach has to be developed that 

 ensures primary consideration of the most vulnerable, priority resources that 

 may be affected by contaminants. Limited funds and manpower dictate the 

 necessity of identifying critical biota and habitat of highest priority, and 

 of orienting research toward the assessment of real or potential impacts of 

 known or candidate contaminants most likely to impinge upon these resources. 

 This orientation can be carried out most effectively if experts in contami- 

 nants research and resources managers work together to identify problems and 

 formulate research policies and design. Once priority resources have been 

 identified, the task of selecting for study and assessment the contaminants 

 of greatest concern becomes simpler. 



RESEARCH APPROACH TO CONTAMINANT PROBLEMS 



Environmental contaminants may be divided roughly into two categories 

 for consideration. The first category includes the general collection of con- 

 taminants that are known to exist in wildlife or fisheries today -- such as 

 DDT, DDE, toxaphene, PCB's, and mercury, or anything that has been chemically 

 identified and confirmed, even though the complete biological significance is 

 not yet clearly defined. The second category is less clear and includes 

 suspected or potential contaminants that have not yet been identified, or 

 whose detrimental effects have not been proven. This group might include new 

 pesticides, unstudied industrial chemicals, some energy-related contaminants, 

 or even some well-known contaminants for which new or broader uses have been 

 developed. 



Major research efforts to date have necessarily focused on identified 

 contaminants known or suspected of causing environmental problems. Little 

 effort has been made to conduct anticipatory research on contaminants asso- 

 ciated with new products, energy development, changing land uses, etc. and 

 intermediate and degradation products of chemical processes have received 

 little attention. The reasons for this historical research emphasis are 

 many and complex, but the following five are perhaps primary: (1) there is 

 no foolproof, clearcut way to determine exactly what contaminants of the 

 future will be; (2) selections of contaminants for early research are based 

 on scientific likelihood and intuition, and are therefore risky; (3) appro- 

 priate research may be difficult to design; (4) public and even scientific 

 concerns are usually minimal until a contaminant becomes an environmental 

 problem; and (5) implementation of anticipatory research may be difficult to 

 justify because of a lack of documentary data. In addition, the prevention 

 or minimization of a future contaminant problem is seldom as widely heralded 



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