Applying Comprehensive Environmental Assessment to Research Planning for Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes: Refinements to Inform Future Stakeholder Engagement

We previously described our collective judgment methods to engage expert stakeholders in the Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) workshop process applied to nano-TiO2 and nano-Ag research planning. We identified several lessons learned in engaging stakeholders to identify clear research priorities for ENMs, including identifying broad information priorities (e.g., human occupational exposures) before discussing more detailed research questions, and rating rather than ranking research priorities. This paper builds off of our previous work by outlining the application of these lessons learned in our most recent work with MWCNTs. The objectives of this paper are to: 1) describe the outcomes of applying these earlier lessons to the collective judgment process for MWCNTs, and 2) discuss new insights and possible refinements for future efforts to engage stakeholders in research planning to support risk assessment and risk management of environmental contaminants. In addition to informing research planning for ENMs, this discussion may also enhance research planning to develop data for assessments of other emerging technologies and even more well-known chemicals with remaining, critical knowledge gaps.

Impact/Purpose

Chemical risk assessments and subsequent risk management plans to protect human health and the environment benefit from early, coordinated research planning by researchers, risk assessors, and decision makers in risk management (e.g., regulators, lab managers, industry personnel). The benefits of strategic research planning, and the particular importance of engaging stakeholders (e.g., researchers, risk assessors, risk managers, community members) in the process are well recognized; however, the underlying processes and procedures that go into such planning and engagement have received relatively little attention in the scientific literature on environmental issues (e.g., contaminants, resource depletion). We address this dearth in literature by discussing a recent application of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA) Comprehensive Environmental Assessment (CEA) approach, which is one way to manage complex information and input from diverse stakeholder perspectives on research planning that will ultimately support human and environmental health decision-making processes. This manuscript addresses a current gap in the literature by discussing a specific way to engage expert stakeholders in research planning that informs future assessment and risk management of emerging materials. In doing so it increases awareness in the general scientific community of the CEA approach in general, as well as the research priorities identified through its application to MWCNTs.

Citation

Powers, Christina, K. Grieger, C. Meacham, Meredith Lassiter, Jeff Gift, G. Lehmann, C. Oligive Hendren, M. Davis, AND L. Burgoon. Applying Comprehensive Environmental Assessment to Research Planning for Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes: Refinements to Inform Future Stakeholder Engagement. Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, KS, 12(1):96-108, (2015).

• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ieam.1663/full
• POWERS.PDF (PDF)  (NA  pp, 5.7 MB, about PDF)