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mining which environmental problems pose the greatest risks to human health, 

 helping policy makers in the future better target policies and regulations to achieve 

 the greatest risk reduction. But risk assessment is a new and rapidly developing 

 science, and methods must evolve as our understanding grows. 



EPA's proposed strengthening of its risk assessment research program will im- 

 prove our ability to conduct human health risk assessments in two ways: (1) by fo- 

 cusing on one of the major weaknesses in risk assessments — human exposure — we 

 will better understand what pollutants people are actually exposed to; and (2) by 

 improving the methods we use to assess health risks in people. S. 1545 would spe- 

 cifically authorize this research. 



Our Fiscal Year 1995 budget request for risk assessment and exposure assess- 

 ment includes: an increase for the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey 

 (NHEXAS); a "Pesticides in Children" initiative that has been developed in response 

 to a National Academy of Sciences report on pesticides and children; and a U.S.- 

 Mexico border research initiative that provides support for a coordinated effort 

 among participating Federal, State and local agencies to address complex environ- 

 mental health problems that exist along the U.S. -Mexico border. 



These programs, in the long-term, will provide needed information about how dif- 

 ferent subpopulations are exposed to different chemicals, supporting EPA's concerns 

 for environmental justice issues. 



Building the scientific knowledge base needed for managing our nation's 

 ecosystems. The Federal government, through the CENR, is undertaking a signifi- 

 cant effort to restructure its strategy for protecting and restoring the nation's eco- 

 logical resources. Rather than focusing solely on regulatory command and control 

 policies based on individual legislative mandates, the new approach recognizes the 

 need for a strategy that adequately accommodates the interactive nature of ecologi- 

 cal systems. 



Beginning in 1994, ORD is restructuring its ecological research, monitoring, and 

 assessment research into a single, coordinated program, which will provide the im- 

 proved science and tools necessary for effective ecosystem management. EMAP is 

 clearly an integral part of this research. We have also identified areas of focus for 

 our ecological research program: (1) integrated regional ecosystem management; (2) 

 integrated watershed ecosystem management; and (3) national assessments and re- 

 search. 



Pollution prevention, rather than pollution control, and innovations in environ- 

 mental technology. Pollution prevention has become the touchstone for the 1990s — 

 we all know now that it is generally more cost-effective to prevent pollution at the 

 source than to treat it or clean it up later. Like the ecosystems research program, 

 ORD's pollution prevention and technology development programs are also moving 

 in a new direction — to harness the expertise and the resources of organizations out- 

 side the Agency. 



ORD is using the President's Environmental Technology Initiative (ETI) as a 

 springboard to refocus its engineering and demonstration programs in areas where 

 there are opportunities to build partnerships. Through this initiative, EPA will pro- 

 mote public/private partnerships to identify needs for and develop new technologies, 

 and then help find markets for these technologies at home and abroad. 



I also want to highlight several other important initiatives in ORD's Fiscal Year 

 1995 budget request: 



High Performance Computing and Communications: ORD is requesting funding 

 for a High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) program. The 

 HPCC will purchase the first massively parallel computer for EPA; demonstrate 

 how massively parallel computing will allow better scientific models to be applied 

 to environmental problems — for example, a linked air pollution-sediment model; and 

 transfer new computing techniques and models to States for routine use. 



Air Quality Research: ORD is requesting additional funding to study widespread 

 tropospheric ozone non-attainment problems and the impacts of particulate matter 

 (PMio) on human health. 



