ORD and Great Lakes National Program Office Scientists To Meet To Formulate Strategy To Characterize Potential Risks of Toxic Substances in Great Lakes-Chicago, IL, January 20 and 21, 2010
Scientists from across ORD will hold a joint meeting with the Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO), the toxic chemical component of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). The intent of this strategy is to establish a framework that can be used by GLNPO to prioritize and organize toxics-related work that may be conducted by ORD, Federal agencies, grantees, and other collaborators. This draft strategy will be reviewed and critiqued at a binational, interagency workshop to be held in May 2010 in Toronto, Canada. The GLRI is a major, comprehensive effort to address priority issues in the Great Lakes, including the issue of toxic substances-the subject of this meeting. Monitoring of toxic substances in the Great Lakes has been going on for a long time, but assessing the risks associated with the presence of legacy contaminants and contaminants of emerging concern has been hampered by the lack of effects data or predictions. Therefore, a major emphasis in the upcoming GLRI work will be on characterizing and predicting potential effects of chemicals relevant to the Great Lakes.