EPA scientists develop science and tools to help communities identify and 

prioritize environmental health issues 

Issue:

Community groups want to understand their 

exposures and risks to environmental 

pollutants. They also want to know how to 

effectively reduce exposures to pollutants 

with the highest risks. If relevant sciencebased tools are not readily available, 

decisions may be based solely on the 

perception of exposures and risk. EPA 

scientists are developing tools to improve 

community access to scientific information. 

Community involvement is crucial in 

defining and prioritizing environmental 

health issues for specific areas or groups of 

people. Community groups and members 

can supply local knowledge and interpret 

results in the context of local decisionmaking. Because of this, communities are 

playing an increasingly central role in 

defining environmental problems and 

identifying the information needed to address 

these problems. Involvement of communities 

is equally important where evidence indicates 

disproportionate exposures or risks are

caused by localized contaminants or other 

environmental conditions. 

To support communities with this process, 

user-friendly tools are needed that provide 

environmental exposure and health-related 

information. To ensure these tools are 

scientifically sound, research is necessary to 

advance the science to take into account the 

many factors that may impact human 

exposure and health risks within a 

community — including chemical and nonchemical factors. 

Science Objective:

EPA is developing the Community-Focused 

Exposure and Risk Screening Tool 

(C-FERST) — a GIS & resource access Web 

tool to support cumulative human exposure 

and risk screening assessments, and help

build sustainable, healthy communities. It is 

designed to assist communities with the 

challenge of identifying and prioritizing 

issues, and making decisions about exposures 

and risks within their community. C-FERST 

supports EPA’s priorities for cleaning up 

communities and working for environmental 

justice to protect vulnerable groups of people.

C-FERST provides a framework for 

collaborative research and information 

sharing to understand community-based 

exposures and risks. It will be used to assess

exposures to multiple chemical factors and, 

eventually, will incorporate non-chemical 

factors. Ultimately, it is anticipated that the 

improved science and user-friendly tool will 

empower environmental managers and 

community residents to make decisions about 

environmental issues specific to their location 

that result in better-informed decisions.

Application and Impact: 

C-FERST will link to and build upon other 

community-focused tools to help identify 

human exposures within a community and 

help prioritize issues for taking action to 

improve public health. 

C-FERST has been developed in 

collaboration with certain projects of the
EPA-coordinated community program called 

CARE (Community Action for a Renewed 

Environment). The CARE grant and 

technical assistance program 

(www.epa.gov/care) offers an innovative way 

for communities to reduce pollution in their 

local environment. 

During C-FERST’s development, EPA 

scientists will listen to community residents 

and local officials to refine the tool. In 2011, 

EPA scientists will work with several CARE 

communities to test and refine the tool. CFERST ultimately will offer information for 

the general public. Future users could include 

community members and leaders, as well as 

federal, state, or local agencies working with 

community partners. 

Eventually, C-FERST users will be able to 

view maps and community reports for 

environmental issues such as air toxics, diesel 

exhaust, lead, environmental tobacco smoke, 

water pollution, fish consumption, residential 

pesticides. Users will also be able to view

cumulative risk estimates for lung cancer, 

asthma, and early neurotoxicity effects. As 

the tool is refined and populated with 

available information, users will be able to:

Consider/identify environmental issues by:

• Viewing guidance, and learning about 

issues other communities have 

considered 

• Accessing information about 

environmental, health, social and 

economic issues

• Accessing methods for local 

monitoring 

Access fact sheets for environmental issues 

of concern including:

• EPA and other federal fact sheets for 

over 40 community environmental

issues

Visualize exposure/risk via mapping tools 

that allow users to:

• Map environmental concentrations,

human exposures, and health risks

• Overlay pollutant sources

• Overlay demographic data for 

identifying vulnerable populations

• Add local data

• View potential impact of solutions

Generate environmental issue profiles with 

the help of:

• Fact sheets, web-links, local exposure 

estimates, maps, and community 

solutions available in a consistent 

report format for each selected issue

Prioritize your community’s issues by:

• Viewing community data table

• Accessing examples of risk ranking 

approaches

Explore potential solutions including:

• Links to fact sheets on exposure/risk 

reduction actions

• Information on promising practices 

for sustainable community solutions

Link to other community-relevant tools 

including:

• A searchable compendium of 

community-relevant tools, and Web 

links to other tools.

References:

Zartarian et al., 2010. The EPA’s 

Community-Focused Exposure and Risk 

Screening Tool (C-FERST) and Its Potential 

Use for Environmental Justice Efforts. 

American Journal of Public Health, accepted.

Zartarian, V., Schultz, B. 2009. The EPA's 

human exposure research program for 

assessing cumulative risk in communities. 

Journal of Exposure Science and 

Environmental Epidemiology. 

Contact:

Valerie Zartarian, Ph.D. , EPA’s Office of 

Research and Development (ORD), National 

Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL), 617 -

918-1541, zartarian.valerie@epa.gov.

Brad Schultz, EPA’s ORD, NERL, 919-541-

3881, schultz.brad@epa.gov.

December, 2010