Department of Basic Sciences and Aquatic Medicine, Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, PO Box 8146, 0033 Oslo, Norway.
Environ Health. 2012 Jun 28;11 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S6. doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-11-S1-S6.
The EU 6th Framework Program (FP)-funded Health and Environment Network (HENVINET) aimed to support informed policy making by facilitating the availability of relevant knowledge on different environmental health issues. An approach was developed by which scientific agreement, disagreement, and knowledge gaps could be efficiently identified, and expert advice prepared in a way that is usable for policy makers. There were two aims of the project: 1) to apply the tool to a relevant issue; the potential health impacts of the widely used plasticizers, phthalates, and 2) to evaluate the method and the tool by asking both scientific experts and the target audience, namely policy makers and stakeholders, for their opinions.
The tool consisted of an expert consultation in several steps on the issue of phthalates in environmental health. A diagram depicting the cause-effect chain, from the production and use of phthalates to potential health impacts, was prepared based on existing reviews. This was used as a basis for an online questionnaire, through which experts in the field were consulted. The results of this first round of consultation laid the foundation for a new questionnaire answered by an expert panel that, subsequently, also discussed approaches and results in a workshop. One major task of the expert panel was to pinpoint priorities from the cause-effect chain according to their impact on the extent of potential health risks and their relevance for reducing uncertainty. The results were condensed into a policy brief that was sent to policy makers and stakeholders for their evaluation.
The experts agreed about the substantial knowledge gaps within the field of phthalates. The top three priorities for further research and policy action were: 1) intrauterine exposure, 2) reproductive toxicology, and 3) exposure from medical devices. Although not all relevant information from the cause-effect chain is known for phthalates, most experts thought that there are enough indications to justify a precautionary approach and to restrict their general use. Although some of the experts expressed some scepticism about such a tool, most felt that important issues were highlighted.
The approach used was an efficient way at summarising priority knowledge gaps as a starting point for health risk assessment of compounds, based on their relevance for the risk assessment outcome. We conclude that this approach is useful for supporting policy makers with state-of-the-art scientific knowledge weighed by experts. The method can assist future evidence-based policy making.
欧盟第六框架计划（FP）资助的健康与环境网络（HENVINET）旨在通过提供有关不同环境健康问题的相关知识，支持知情的政策制定。开发了一种方法，可以有效地识别科学共识、分歧和知识空白，并以决策者可使用的方式准备专家意见。该项目有两个目标：1）将该工具应用于一个相关问题，即广泛使用的增塑剂邻苯二甲酸酯的潜在健康影响；2）通过向科学专家和目标受众（即政策制定者和利益相关者）征求意见，评估该方法和工具。
该工具由一个关于邻苯二甲酸酯在环境健康问题上的专家咨询的几个步骤组成。根据现有综述，制作了一张描述从邻苯二甲酸酯的生产和使用到潜在健康影响的因果链的图表，作为在线问卷的基础，通过该问卷咨询了该领域的专家。第一轮咨询的结果为一个专家小组回答的新问卷奠定了基础，随后，该小组还在一次研讨会上讨论了方法和结果。专家小组的一项主要任务是根据其对潜在健康风险程度的影响及其对减少不确定性的相关性，从因果链中确定重点。结果被压缩成一份政策简报，发送给政策制定者和利益相关者供其评估。
专家们一致认为邻苯二甲酸酯领域存在大量知识空白。进一步研究和政策行动的三个首要重点是：1）宫内暴露；2）生殖毒理学；3）医疗器械暴露。尽管邻苯二甲酸酯的因果链中并非所有相关信息都已知，但大多数专家认为有足够的迹象表明需要采取预防措施，并限制其广泛使用。尽管一些专家对这种工具表示怀疑，但大多数专家认为重要问题得到了强调。
所使用的方法是一种有效的方法，可以总结优先知识空白，作为对化合物进行健康风险评估的起点，基于其对风险评估结果的相关性。我们的结论是，这种方法有助于决策者利用专家权衡的最新科学知识。该方法可以协助未来基于证据的决策制定。
