Epidemiologic and toxicologic research

Most environmental health issues involve a variety of elements with overlapping or distinct causes, stakeholder groups, and solutions. Selecting an important, specific element of the issue is essential when formulating realistic ways to address and improve the environmental issue. This specific aspect of the issue is known as the problem and can be defined in a concise problem statement. The problem statement includes the purpose of the problem-solving effort, defines its scope, and states the specific objective of the problem-solving effort in the form of a question.

The three elements of the statement are—explaining how things should be; identifying a significant gap; and asking a question about one major way to improve the current situation. For example:

The food you purchase should be free from levels of pesticide residues that are hazardous to human health, but many commercially used pesticides have not been tested using newer techniques to detect harm that they may cause during prenatal development or childhood. Should the EPA require that pesticides used on food crops be reevaluated using the new tests to ensure that children are fully protected, and if so, which tests?