HEI Energy presents at 2020 International Society of Exposure Science Annual Meeting

At the 2020 Annual Conference of the International Society of Exposure Science in September, Donna Vorhees, Director of HEI Energy — an affiliate of the Health Effects Institute — shared HEI Energy’s experience in planning for research about potential human exposures associated with the onshore development of oil and natural gas from shale and other unconventional resources (UOGD) in the United States. The presentation, part of a symposium that stressed the importance of exposure science and epidemiology for risk assessment, shared a communication approach (in matrix format) for connecting interdisciplinary practitioners and offered case studies illustrating how this communication can enhance public health decision-making. Vorhees’s talk illustrated the importance of collaboration in the context of exposure and epidemiology research directed at understanding the potential implications of UOGD for human health. She described the complexities in assessing human exposures to UOGD, current approaches to quantifying environmental exposures in the epidemiology and risk assessment literature, and a path toward improving assessment of exposures associated with UOGD to strengthen future epidemiology studies and risk assessments.

See slides for more information.