East Asia Monitor
UNU
e-Newsletter
Guest Editorial Comment: Dr Robert Kavlock, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, US EPA
I have had the fortunate opportunity to be involved in the UNU's "Environmental Monitoring and Governance in the East Asian Coastal Hydrosphere" over the past three years and to witness the progress made in developing the capacity for monitoring pollution, particularly for endocrine disrupting chemicals.
Last month, the UNU-Iwate-UNESCO Joint Conference on "Conserving our Coastal Environment" marked the completion of the first three years of the effort. Attendees heard presentations on the current activities related to endocrine disruption in the US, Canada, Japan and the European Union, in addition to status reports from the UNU projects in Malaysia and the Philippines. From discussions during the meeting, it was clear that a solid foundation has been laid for a continuation of the effort over the next three years. The partnership between the UNU, UNESCO, the Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo, the Iwate Prefecture, and the Shimadzu Corporation is remarkable in terms of uniting behind a regionally and globally important topic.
Now that the analytical technologies have been established in the first phase of project, I see three important goals for the next phase of the project: (1) to continue existing sampling strategies such that the status and trends of environmental contamination over time can be observed; (2) the expansion of the scope of the contaminants monitored such that the most important ones relative to southeast Asian environment are included; and (3) an assessment of the significance of the findings for overall ecological and human health. Relative to the first challenge, there is slight parallel with the EMAP (Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (see http://www.epa.gov/docs/emap/nca/index.html). EMAP is a research program to develop the tools necessary to monitor and assess the status and trends of national ecological resources. EMAP's goal is to develop the scientific understanding for translating environmental monitoring data from multiple spatial and temporal scales into assessments of current ecological condition and forecasts of future risks to our natural resources. Such efforts are important for several reasons, not only to identify the most important stressors in the coastal environment and their sources, but also to evaluate the success of any regulatory actions to improve environmental conditions. I encourage those connected with the UNU project to visit the EMAP website for some ideas.
With regard to the third challenge, I echo the statements made by Professor Fuwa in the last e-Newsletter. Our analytical capacities are reaching out to more and more chemicals at lower and lower limits of detection, and the challenge is to understand what the various levels in various media and tissues mean. Here to we have a similar situation in the US with our "National Exposure Report Card" that is obtaining a snapshot of exposure (blood or urine levels) of a number of environmental chemicals in the US population (see http://www.cdc.gov/programs/environ5.htm). While we are accumulating exquisite data on internal dose, we are not yet able to satisfactorily tell the public what those numbers mean for their health. Hence, researchers doing environmental monitoring must partner with other experts to not only make sure that the monitoring is done at the right time, in the right places on the right samples, but also to analyze and interpret the results.
The magnitude of the problem we face in improving our environment is indeed formidable, and that is why steps such as those being done in the Coastal Hydrosphere Project are so important. Having seen the bounty of the coastal environment at tuna auctions at the Tokyo Fish Market, and the enthusiasm of the students from Otsuchi at the cultural exchange we had following the workshop in Tokyo, re-emphasized to me the value of environmental protection and sustainable development. I wish you all the best success.