Abstract
In conducting health assessments at hazardous‐waste sites, ATSDR staff must identify environmental chemical contaminants that pose a potential public health hazard. To assist health assessors in this effort, ATSDR has developed environmental media evaluation guides (EMEGs). EMEGs have been developed for water, soil, and air. The EMEG values are expressed as a range to account for the range in exposures in different segments of the population. The use of EMEGs provides health assessors with a consistent strategy for selecting environmental contaminants to be further evaluated in the health assessment process.