The Environmental Protection Agency's Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) and its potential use for environmental justice efforts.

OBJECTIVES: Our primary objective was to provide higher quality, more accessible science to address challenges of characterizing local-scale exposures and risks for enhanced community-based assessments and environmental decision-making. METHODS: After identifying community needs, priority environmental issues, and current tools, we designed and populated the Community-Focused Exposure and Risk Screening Tool (C-FERST) in collaboration with stakeholders, following a set of defined principles, and considered it in the context of environmental justice. RESULTS: C-FERST is a geographic information system and resource access Web tool under development for supporting multimedia community assessments. Community-level exposure and risk research is being conducted to address specific local issues through case studies. CONCLUSIONS: C-FERST can be applied to support environmental justice efforts. It incorporates research to develop community-level data and modeled estimates for priority environmental issues, and other relevant information identified by communities. Initial case studies are under way to refine and test the tool to expand its applicability and transferability. Opportunities exist for scientists to address the many research needs in characterizing local cumulative exposures and risks and for community partners to apply and refine C-FERST.

Tools available to communities for conducting cumulative exposure and risk assessments.

This paper summarizes and assesses over 70 tools that could aid with gathering information and taking action on environmental issues related to community-based cumulative risk assessments (CBCRA). Information on tool use, development and research needs, was gathered from websites, documents, and CBCRA program participants and researchers, including 25 project officers who work directly with community groups. The tools were assessed on the basis of information provided by project officers, community members, CBCRA researchers, and by case study applications. Tables summarize key environmental issues and tool features: (1) a listing of CBCRA-related environmental issues of concern to communities; (2) web-based tools that map environmental information; (3) step-by-step guidance documents; (4) databases of environmental information; and (5) computer models that simulate human exposure to chemical stressors. All tools described here are publicly available, with the focus being on tools developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. These tables provide sources of information to promote risk identification and prioritization beyond risk perception approaches, and could be used by CBCRA participants and researchers. The purpose of this overview is twofold: (1) To present a comprehensive, though not exhaustive, summary of numerous tools that could aid with performing CBCRAs; and (2) To use this toolset as a sample of the current state of CBCRA tools to critically examine their utility and guide research for the development of new and improved tools.