Battelle Assists National Petroleum Council with Critical Infrastructure Security Study

Through its relationship with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Battelle assisted the National Petroleum Council (NPC) with development of cooperative approaches to protect the critical infrastructure of the nation’s oil and gas industry. Battelle was one of a limited number of organizations to contribute to NPC’s study. The federal government had requested NPC’s input as part of their aggressive pursuit to define approaches through which the critical infrastructures of the U.S. could be protected from physical and cyber threats. The objective of the study was to review the potential vulnerabilities of the oil and gas industries to attack and advise the federal government on practices and systematic approaches that industry and government should adopt as protection from attacks. Their findings were documented in an extensive, detailed report entitled “Securing Oil and Natural Gas Infrastructures in the New Economy,” which was published in June 2001, www.npc.org.

For more information contact Landis Kannberg at (509) 375-3919, landis.kannberg@pnl.gov.

What effects have the federally mandated phase-outs of chlorpyrifos and diazinon and increased use of alternative pesticides had on children’s exposure to substances commonly used in homes and schools, and on lawns and pets? Battelle’s Atmospheric Science and Applied Technology Department (ASAT) will study “Pesticide Exposures of Preschool Children Over Time (PEPCOT)” under a three-year, $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program.

The main objective is to estimate long-term changes in aggregate exposures to targeted pesticides—including pyrethroid and organophosphate insecticides, and acid herbicides&@0151;for selected preschool children in the same age group. A second objective is to estimate the interpersonal variability of these exposures among preschool children living in different homes and in the same homes.

Battelle will measure the children’s exposures over three years. These data can be compared with data for the same pesticides collected in Battelle’s earlier “Children’s Total Exposures to Persistent Pesticides and other Persistent Pollutants (CTEPP)” study for EPA.

For more information contact Dr. Nancy Wilson at (919) 544-3717 x 140, wilsonk@battelle.org.