November 5-6, 2009

Introduction to Summary Notes

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is currently engaged in a “fresh look” at environmental health concerns on the Island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. As part of that fresh look, ATSDR invited a distinguished panel of Puerto Rican scientists and others who have studied Vieques to participate in a scientific consultation.

The purpose of the meeting was to review the environmental, human biomonitoring, and health outcome studies that have been conducted for Vieques, and, as a group of scientists, discuss the strengths and limitations of this body of work and generate recommendations for further work. Recommendations were offered on an individual basis, not as consensus recommendations which are prohibited unless the group is chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. During the two-day meeting, the participants posed many questions and provided individual recommendations regarding the Agency’s future public health activities on the Island of Vieques.

The information below is a summary of individual participants’ input and recommendations and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

* Individual recommendations from the 2009 meeting were taken into consideration, and many of the issues are being addressed in the Summary Report.