2015 AAAS Annual Meeting (12-16 February 2015)

February 12 - 16, 2015

Making Sense of Chaos: A Path to Understanding Environmental Chemicals and Health

Numerous scientific and clinical professional societies have recognized the need to address health risks from exposure to environmental chemicals. Yet, action is hampered by lack of methods for translating the scientific literature on these chemicals into summaries of the strength of evidence. Clinical medicine faced this same problem more than 30 years ago and demonstrated that systematic reviews provided a robust and transparent approach to clinical decision-making. The environmental health field is now improving methods for synthesizing scientific information through the application of systematic review methodology. This approach ensures that relevant scientific information is identified and accounts for quality and biases and their implications on the interpretation of results. These attributes are important for governmental organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, so that policymakers will have the best available scientific information for decisions. In this symposium, panelists will provide a history of the impetus for adopting systematic review methods, along with how the application of systematic review in environmental health differs from that in medicine. Policy implications for applying systematic review in chemical health assessments will be discussed, and panelists will highlight scientific challenges and the advantages of these reviews in developing timely assessments that facilitate decisions to protect public health.