Neurobehavioral testing and hazardous chemical sites

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has focused its health assessment efforts on seven priority health conditions, including neurotoxic disorders, and has begun to select tests and associated measurement tools that can detect those health effects. The evaluation of community-level exposures has introduced new challenges beyond the earlier testing models based on occupational exposures. Community populations are far more diverse than those found in workplace settings, including children, elderly persons, and the infirm, and the neurotoxic agents present at most hazardous waste sites usually are incompletely characterized and commonly are found in complex mixtures. This article describes the background to the four following articles reporting on a 3-day national workshop convened to assist ATSDR in developing standardized neurobehavioral test batteries for studies of adverse health outcomes in communities.