EPA's Superfund program is responsible for cleaning up some of the nation's most contaminated land and responding to environmental emergencies and natural disasters. The FY 2020 report celebrates Superfund's 40th anniversary and calls attention to our FY 2020 achievements in cleaning up sites, protecting public health and the environment, revitalizing communities, innovating through science and technology, and engaging communities. Despite unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Superfund site teams successfully continued mission-critical work and pivoted to virtual platforms to ensure meaningful community engagement at sites.

Dioxins, or polychlorinated dibenzodioxins (PCDDs), are formed as products of incomplete combustion and as byproducts of manufacturing. Although some PCDDs in the environment are released during forest fires and thus natural in origin, they are also released in combustion emissions from municipal and industrial waste incinerators and from burning fossil fuels and wood. As byproducts, PCDDs may be released during the manufacture of chlorinated chemicals (e.g., wood preservatives and herbicides), secondary metal smelting (particularly aluminum, copper, and lead), cement kilns, and chlorine bleaching of wood pulp for paper. The CLU-IN Dioxins Focus Area has been updated to reflect current chemistry, behavior, occurrence, toxicology, analytical methods, and ongoing research in potential treatment technologies.

With this RFA, EPA seeks to advance common exposure measurement protocols that can be implemented across PFAS cohort studies to generate important exposure data for priority pathways. The Agency is soliciting research that proposes and evaluates innovative protocols for measuring human exposure to PFAS chemicals in cohorts where biomonitoring is being conducted. Responsive proposals should include a collection of environmental and personal exposure measures and analysis for a common set of PFAS chemicals (e.g., those measured in NHANES) as well as Total Organic Fluorine (TOF). In addition, the data developed should enable or improve interpretation of PFAS biomonitoring data and inform understanding of the important sources and pathways related to personal exposures to PFAS chemicals.