California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), a department within the California Environmental Protection Agency, is the lead state agency for the assessment of health risks posed by chemicals in the environment. OEHHA’s mission is to protect and enhance the health of Californians and our state’s environment through scientific evaluations that inform, support and guide regulatory and other actions. Our scientists conduct cutting-edge work performing evaluations that are used by various regulatory programs in California, and that are also frequently the subject of statewide, national and international interest.

OEHHA is building a brand new, interdisciplinary computational toxicology team focused on evaluating unassessed chemicals using novel risk assessment methods to predict chemical toxicity from data, including data from non-mammalian systems, high-throughput tests, key characteristics (KCs), and inferences based on “read-across” from related chemicals.

OEHHA also implements the 1986 Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, known as Proposition 65, and compiles the state’s list of substances that cause cancer or reproductive harm. The Office also develops health-protective exposure levels for contaminants in air, water, and soil as guidance for regulatory agencies and the public. These include public health goals for contaminants in drinking water and cancer potency factors and non-cancer reference exposure levels for the Air Toxics Hot Spots Program. Activities also include:

--Developing fish advisories for mercury and other contaminants in sport fish from California water bodies, and making recommendations on fishing safety and closures after oil spills.

--Developing CalEnviroScreen, a pioneering environmental justice mapping tool that can be used to put together a picture of the burdens communities face from pollutants and their vulnerability to health and economic impacts.

OEHHA also provides scientific peer review of pesticide risk assessments; helps develop regulations to protect pesticide workers; trains physicians to recognize pesticide-related illnesses; and works with the Dept. of Food & Agriculture to provide health information on pesticide applications combating invasive species.