The

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...

's National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) is a national laboratory that conducts

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

to find improved methods, measurements, and models to assess and predict exposures of humans and

ecosystems An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

pollutants A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effect, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming (i.e. minerals or extracted compounds like oi ...

and other conditions in

air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

, and

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...

. It is one of three national laboratories that conduct research for EPA's Office of Research and Development. NERL is also responsible for testing and establishing new Federal Reference Methods (FRM) and Federal Equivalent Methods (FEM). NERL is headquartered in

Research Triangle Park Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States; it occupies in North Carolina and hosts more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. It is owned and managed by the Research Triangle Foundation, a private non-profi ...

, NC, and has locations in North Carolina, Ohio, Georgia and Nevada.

NERL's Niches

The NERL focuses its efforts on the following areas: * Analytical/Monitoring Methods Development * Indicators/Indices of Exposure * Exposure/Dose Process Characterization * Decision Support Tools * Predictive Modeling * Source Apportionment/Environmental Forensics

Publication Topics

NERL published papers in the following areas NERL Publications Page * Air **Exposure **Measurement and Emissions **Modeling **Multipollutant *Climate and Energy **Energy **Modeling *Ecosystems **Ecological Risk Assessment **Ecosystems and Climate Change *Human Health Risk Assessment

External links

EPA's National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL)
at the

website.

Notes

References

National Exposure Research Laboratory
Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer website ink accessed on August 31, 2007
National Exposure Research Laboratory
West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation ink accessed on August 31, 2007 Laboratories in the United States United States Environmental Protection Agency {{US-gov-stub