Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR): Water-Related Activities

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.

Division of Community Health Investigations (DCHI)

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 Human Health Sciences (DTHHS)

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 2008 report 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.