At a glance
When communities are exposed to natural and manmade hazardous substances, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is ready to respond. Our top priority is to determine public health effects of environmental exposures and to protect people from these exposures.
Our mission
Spotlight
ATSDR protects communities from harmful health effects related to exposure to natural and man-made hazardous substances. We do this by responding to environmental health emergencies, investigating emerging environmental health threats, conducting research on health impacts of hazardous waste sites, and building capabilities and providing actionable guidance to state and local health partners.
What we do
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is a federal, non-regulatory, environmental public health agency overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ATSDR is the lead federal public health agency for determining, preventing, and mitigating the human health effects of exposure to hazardous substances. ATSDR is the only federal health agency that works directly with concerned citizens to address environmental hazards and respond to requests for assistance from communities across the nation.
ATSDR's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. To fulfill our mission, we also have a regional office within each of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 10 regional offices and at the EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C. ATSDR's staff are prepared to respond 24/7 to environmental threats from natural disasters, chemical spills, and other emergencies. Our staff have extensive experience addressing some of the most significant and difficult environmental health hazards in the United States, including dioxins/furans, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), radiation, lead, and trichloroethylene.
Keep reading: About ATSDR Regional Offices
Our impact
ATSDR's work reduces injuries, illnesses, and death from exposure to hazardous substances. In addition to protecting human health, ATSDR's efforts reduce economic burdens commonly associated with environmental contamination, including cost of medical treatment, lost productivity, decreased lifetime earnings for those affected, and reduced property value and business liability.
Keep reading: ATSDR's impact on public health
Values
Accountability
As diligent stewards of the funds entrusted to our agency, we act decisively and compassionately, in service to people's health. We ensure that our research and services are based on sound science, to meet the public's needs and achieve public health goals.
We are diligent stewards of the funds entrusted to our agency. We act decisively and compassionately in service to people's health. We base our research and services on sound science. This allows us to meet public needs and achieve our public health goals.
Collaboration
We share a common purpose. ATSDR works cooperatively to leverage our resources and efficiently achieve goals. Partnerships within CDC/ATSDR and with states, territories, localities, tribes, academic institutions, and other organizations are essential.
Innovation
We encourage creativity and innovative thinking to advance public health practice and science. We provide national leadership as we focus on improvements and solutions to the most important environmental health problems.
Equity
We are committed to ensuring a healthy environment for all. Economically and socially marginalized communities are at a higher risk of being affected by environmental exposures. We are committed to a comprehensive approach that includes identifying environmental justice communities and assessing gaps in services to these communities through public health activities, products, and decision-making processes.
Integrity
We are committed to transparency, honesty, and thorough consideration of scientific outcomes. We follow policies and systems to preserve quality of information and to rigorously evaluate data, research findings, and results. We strictly adhere to policies that protect human subjects and privacy, ensure proper animal care and use, engage in responsible conduct of research, and ensure professional ethics.
Respect
We respect and understand our interdependence with all people, treating them and their contributions with dignity. We value individual and cultural diversity and are committed to achieving a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization.
Priorities
Our work reduces injuries, illnesses, and death from exposure to natural and man-made toxic substances.
ATSDR is the lead agency within the U.S. Public Health Service for enforcing the health-related provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). ATSDR is responsible for:
- Assessing the presence and nature of health hazards at specific Superfund sites
- Helping prevent or reduce further exposure and the illnesses that can result
- Expanding knowledge on the health effects of exposure to hazardous substances
ATSDR's priorities include
- Reducing the health impact from exposures to harmful chemicals
- Protecting vulnerable populations from the risks of harmful exposure (vulnerable populations include children, pregnant women, the elderly)
- Advancing environmental science and medicine
Collaboration
We share a common purpose. ATSDR works cooperatively, leveraging our resources and efficiently achieving our goals. Partnerships are essential within CDC/ATSDR and with states, territories, localities, tribes, academic institutions, and other organizations.
Innovation
We encourage creativity and inventive thinking to advance public health practice and science. We provide national leadership as we focus on improvements and solutions to the most important environmental health problems.
Equity
We are committed to ensuring a healthy environment for all Americans. We recognize that some among us can be more vulnerable to the following:
- Risks from poor environmental conditions
- Disproportionate amounts of contamination or exposures
- Not having fully equitable access to environmental benefits
We are committed to protecting these vulnerable populations.
Integrity
We are honest and ethical in all we do. We will do what we say. We prize scientific integrity and professional excellence.
Respect
We respect and understand our alliance with all people, inside NCEH/ ATSDR and throughout the world. We treat them and their contributions with dignity. We value individual and cultural diversity. And we are committed to achieving a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization.
Priorities
ATSDR is the lead agency within the U.S. Public Health Service for enforcing the health-related provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). ATSDR is responsible for:
- Assessing the presence and nature of health hazards at specific Superfund sites
- Helping prevent or reduce further exposure and the illnesses that can result
- Expanding knowledge on the health effects of exposure to hazardous substances
ATSDR's priorities include
- Reducing the health impact from exposures to harmful chemicals
- Protecting vulnerable populations from the risks of harmful exposure (vulnerable populations include children, pregnant women, the elderly)
- Advancing environmental science and medicine
Goals
ATSDR is the lead agency within the Public Health Service for enforcing the health-related provisions of CERCLA. The agency is charged under the Superfund Act:
- Assess the presence and nature of health hazards at specific Superfund sites
- Help prevent or reduce further exposure and the illnesses that can result
- Expand knowledge on the health effects of exposure to hazardous substances
Background
In 1980, Congress created ATSDR to implement the health-related sections of laws that protect the public from hazardous wastes and environmental spills of hazardous substances. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), commonly known as the "Superfund" Act, provided the Congressional mandate to remove or clean up abandoned and inactive hazardous waste sites. It also provided federal assistance in toxic emergencies. The Superfund program is responsible for finding and cleaning up the most dangerous hazardous waste sites in the country.
Keep reading: ATSDR Background and Congressional Mandates
Our work
ATSDR has seven core focus areas:
Public Health Assessments and Health Consultations: ATSDR assesses current and emerging environmental health threats and provides actionable recommendations to protect health at hazardous waste sites, and in response to environmental public health emergencies.
Exposure Investigations and Health Studies: ATSDR investigates exposures by collecting environmental and biological (when appropriate) data to determine whether people have been exposed to hazardous substances. ATSDR evaluates the association between environmental contaminants and health outcomes through health studies.
Children's Environmental Health: ATSDR helps states promote and implement initiatives to protect children in childcare and early learning facilities from environmental hazards and provides specialized environmental exposure medical knowledge to pediatric healthcare professionals through Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs).
Land Reuse and Redevelopment: ATSDR expands capacities of state, local, and tribal partners to assess and safely redevelop brownfields and land reuse sites, ensuring redevelopment occurs in a healthy manner and improving site use and economic value.
Protection of Tribal Nations: ATSDR helps tribal governments identify and address environmental contaminants and investigate exposures on American Indian/Alaskan Native lands.
State-of-the-Art Science: ATSDR strengthens application of toxicological science to inform public health actions, address emerging contaminants, and conduct health studies to understand health effects of environmental exposures.
Increasing Environmental Health Capacity at State Health Departments: ATSDR's Partnership to Promote Local Efforts to Reduce Environmental Exposure (APPLETREE) cooperative agreement program funds health departments to detect, respond to, and prevent harmful exposures in communities. This helps health departments form partnerships and implement site-specific protections to address environmental exposures.
Leadership Bio
As Director of the National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Aaron Bernstein, MD, MPH, oversees CDC's efforts to protect people’s health from environmental hazards through investigating relationships between environmental factors and health, developing guidance, and building partnerships to support healthy decision making. Prior to joining NCEH/ATSDR, Bernstein led the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Harvard Chan C-CHANGE) and practiced pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital for nearly 20 years.