For this Assignment, you will take the perspective of a director of a regional Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office. The national EPA Office of Environmental Information (OEI) has tasked all regional directors to identify an environmental hazard in your community by again visiting the EPA’s EJScreen tool at http://www2.epa.gov/ejscreen and enter a zip code (e.g., your hometown) in the “Launch the Tool” section. When the map is loaded, choose “Add Maps.” Highlight “Additional Maps,” and select “Sites reporting to EPA.” Explore the various “Sites reporting to EPA” (air emissions, hazardous waste, water dischargers, superfund, and toxic releases) to find a contaminant that affects your community.
For this contaminant, prepare an executive summary (2–3 pages) to submit to EPA OEI. In this summary, please discuss the human health effects of exposure, the sources into the environment, and the route of human exposure. Specify whether the hazard is chemical, physical, or biological and whether this affects occupational health, the general public, or both.
