Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) serves the public by using the best science, taking responsive public health actions, and providing trusted health information to prevent harmful exposures and disease related to toxic substances.

ATSDR’s Water-Related Activities

Division of Health Assessment and Consultation (DHAC)

Exposure-Dose Reconstruction Program (EDRP)

• The primary goal of the EDRP is to enhance the agency’s capacity to assess exposure and dose-with special emphasis on characterizing past exposures, to better support health assessments and consultations, health studies, and exposure registries

Division of Toxicology and Environmental Medicine (DTEM)

Great Lakes Human Health Effects Research Program

• In 2001, the International Joint Commission (IJC) asked ATSDR for “assistance in evaluating the public health implications of environmental contamination in Great Lakes Areas of Concern.” In response to that request, ATSDR developed a report entitled "Selected Information on Chemical Releases within Great Lakes Counties Containing Areas of Concern (AOC)." The current (April 2008) draft summarizes actions taken by ATSDR.

Division of Health Studies

Camp LeJeune

• In 1982, the Marine Corps discovered specific volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the drinking water of US Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. ATSDR has been assessing the effects of exposure to drinking water containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) since 1993. ATSDR activities include the 1998 Study on Volatile Organic Compounds in Drinking Water and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and a telephone interview of parents of children who were carried or conceived at Camp Lejeune, NC during 1968-1985. In addition, the current study, titled "Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds in Drinking Water and Specific Birth Defects and Childhood Cancers at United States Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina," began in Spring 2005. ATSDR is planning to conduct a mortality study, a cancer incidence study, and a health questionnaire survey of active duty personnel, dependents, and civilian employees who were at the base during the period of drinking water contamination.

• Please note: Some of these publications are available for download only as *.pdf files. These files require Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to be viewed. Please review the information on downloading and using Acrobat Reader software.