Animals as sentinels of environmental health hazards

The Committee on Animals as Monitors of Environmental Hazards was formed when the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry requested that the National Academy of Sciences gather an NRC committee to review and evaluate the usefulness of animal epidemiologic studies for human risk assessment and recommend the types of data that should be collected. With specific questions in mind, the committee attempted to determine how animals could be used for ecological and human health risk determinations as well as to provide an early-warning system for risk assessment and management.