From data to decisions: a gap in screening-level decision support for pharmaceutical environmental policy

Digital information systems are increasingly shaping environmental governance by expanding access to chemical evidence and supporting regulatory analysis. In pharmaceutical environmental policy, regulatory agencies have invested heavily in data infrastructure that aggregates toxicological, exposure, and occurrence information. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) platforms such as the CompTox Chemicals Dashboard and the Water Contaminant Information Tool (WCIT) exemplify this shift toward large-scale, open information provision. At the same time, many environmental policy decisions begin well before formal risk assessment. At the screening stage, decision-makers often determine which pharmaceutical substances warrant further monitoring, assessment, or regulatory attention. These judgments are made under conditions of uncertainty, limited administrative capacity, and competing policy objectives. While existing platforms excel at data access, they offer limited support for synthesis, trade-off reasoning, and justification at this early decision stage. This Perspective focuses on the gap between data provision and screening-level decision support in pharmaceutical environmental governance. Using examples from widely used EPA information systems and pharmaceutical prioritization literature, the Perspective highlights that complementary analytical, visual, and procedural decision-support approaches could strengthen transparency and usability without replacing existing regulatory databases. Addressing this gap represents a constructive opportunity for interdisciplinary environmental research at the interface of science, policy, and decision making.