Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
The ATSDR, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and administered organizationally with the CDC, was established in 1985 and is authorized by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA; more commonly known as the Superfund law). The ATSDR is responsible for finding and cleaning the most dangerous hazardous waste sites in the country. Specific functions include public health assessments of waste sites, health consultations concerning specific hazardous substances, health surveillance and registries, response to emergency releases of hazardous substances, applied research in support of public health assessments, information development and dissemination, and education and training concerning hazardous substances. The ATSDR’s mission is to protect the public against harmful exposures and disease-related exposures to toxic substances. The ATSDR is the lead federal public health agency responsible for determining human health effects associated with toxic exposures, preventing continued exposures, and mitigating associated human health risks. ATSDR is administered organizationally with the CDC. The ATSDR has 10 regional offices within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) across the country ( ATSDR, 2016 ).