A Perspective from US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Scientists: How Your Epidemiologic Analyses Can Inform the Human Health Risk Assessment Process

Epidemiologic research can be used in all aspects of dose-response assessment, which involves identifying a point of departure followed by specific adjustments and extrapolations to identify a toxicity value intended to prevent adverse effects across the population. To facilitate the integration of epidemiologic research into the dose-response assessment process, we provide specific recommendations for additional modeling (e.g., modeling in the low exposure range; exploring nonlinearity) and reporting (e.g., sufficient information to conduct study evaluation; more details on exposure levels in the population) in published epidemiologic research. Many of these suggestions require only additional reporting in the final manuscript or associated appendixes but would have substantial impact on the contribution of the published work to the assessment process. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP15203.