Small Leads EPA ORD Lab
Review
Mitchell Small (CEE/EPP), a member of the EPA Board of Scientific Counselors
(BOSC), chaired one of the committees charged with evaluating the goals,
programs and organization of five major EPA laboratories.
Small chaired the review of the National Center
for Environmental Research & Quality Assurance (NCERQA). The
review, like those of the other ORD Labs and Centers, found an organization
still working through the growing pains of a major shift in focus and
structure, but with a mission critical to the quality of the nation's
environmental science and management. The BOSC urged the ORD to
stay the course in its emphasis on open, competitive, peer-reviewed
science, and its efforts to link high quality research with regulatory
and decision-making needs.
NCERQA oversees the greatly expanded EPA extramural
research program, including the major STAR grants and fellowship programs.
Since its founding in 1995, NCERQA's budget has nearly doubled in size
each year. NCERQA plays a central role in the reorganized and
refocused ORD's attempts to reinvigorate the quality of EPA science;
ensure participation by outside scientists based upon open and highly
publicized competitive opportunities; promote rigorous and independent
peer review and quality assurance; and foster greater integration with
the rest of the EPA to ensure that the science is both useful and utilized.
Major thrust areas supported by NCERQA currently include particulate
matter, ecological assessment, children's exposure to pesticides and
other toxics, endocrine disruptors, drinking water, and technology for
sustainable development.
The committee found that NCERQA management
and staff had exhibited "extraordinary creativity" in developing infrastructure
and programs to promote, support, administer and communicate research
vital to our understanding of important and emerging environmental issues.
However, it also noted that the Center lacks the resources to fully
and effectively implement all its programs while still keeping up with
their growing portfolio of proposals and grants.
The BOSC NCERQA report, along with the other
BOSC reviews of ORD Labs and Centers, can be obtained from Shirley Hamilton,
ORD Board of Scientific Counselors, US EPA, 8701R, Washington, DC
20460; 202+564-6853; hamilton.shirley@epamail.epa.gov.
Fischbeck Receives H&SS
Teaching Award
Associate Professor Paul Fischbeck (SDS/EPP) is the 1998 recipient of
the Elliot Dunlap Smith Award for outstanding teaching and educational
service in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. He received
this award, said H&SS dean Peter Stearns, because of his innovative
teaching methods, his articulate and expressive style and his "unfailing
dedication" to students. In addition to excellent performance
in such undergraduate courses as Decision Analysis and Decision Support
Systems, Fischbeck has made outstanding contributions in the supervision
of graduate students both in SDS and in EPP. Over the past six
years he has served on 26 Ph.D. committees, chairing nine. He
is known in EPP for his unselfish service in assisting students on a
wide variety of problems in risk and decision analysis. |
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Undergraduate
Project on Food Irradiation Takes Final Presentation to Washington
EPP's
spring 1998 project class examined the use of food irradiation as a technology
for food safety. Drawing upon the facilities of the AAAS Building,
where EPP's Washington Office is housed, project participants took their
final presentation on the road. The presentation was heard simultaneously
by an audience in Pittsburgh.
Food irradiation is a food processing technology
that uses high-energy gamma rays to kill food-borne pathogens. Such
sterilization can be used on produce and fresh meat to inhibit spoiling
and extend shelf-life. In December 1997, the FDA approved food irradiation
for red meat. Previously, irradiation had been approved for poultry,
pork, and many types of produce.
The students found that irradiation is a safe
and effective technology for reducing the number of harmful pathogens
in food. However, there are alternative technologies (such as, steam
pasteurization) that may be similarly cost effective. Illness and
death due to food-borne pathogens are serious problems; consequently,
these technologies are worthy of further study and possible use by meat
producers.
The presentation was attended by representatives
from USDA, FDA, Giant Eagle grocery stores, the International Food Information
Council, the American Meat Institute, Public Voice for Food and Health
Policy, the National Consumers League, and others.
Food Chemical News (May 4, 1998) reported that
the EPP project "confirmed that after consumers are educated about irradiation,
they are more willing to purchase irradiated meat and poultry."
The students' consumer survey also found that the term "cold pasteurization"
is strongly preferred to "irradiation."
The students made policy recommendations about
how the government should use food irradiation to increase food safety.
As reported in Nutrition Week (May 1, 1998), the students concluded that,
although food irradiation has potential benefits, it "should not be mandated
by the government;" instead, it should "be integrated with Hazard Analysis
Critical Control Points (HACCP), the new system of meat inspection."
Second Pair of Tom Johnson
Fellows in D.C.
After
two very successful student projects conducted in Washington during the
summer of 1997, the Tom Johnson Fellowship Program again brought two undergraduates
to Washington this past summer to conduct independent research on a policy
issue with a significant technical focus. Ira Fay (CS/EPP) did research
on data encryption and policies for computer security and worked as an
intern with the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Ira, a Computer
Science major, is pursuing the Technology Policy minor in the EPP Department.
Nathan Steinwald (CEE/EPP) examined the use of scientific information
by companies and organizations engaged in advocacy on global climate change.
The students' summer began with a welcoming luncheon
in the EPP Washington office, attended by a number of DC-area EPP alums,
who offered advice and encouragement, and became "instant contacts."
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