Panel 4: linking service members and exposure data to support determination of risk-proceedings of an educational symposium on assessing potentially hazardous environmental exposures among military populations.

On May 19 to 21, 2010, the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences cosponsored an educational symposium on Assessing Potentially Hazardous Environmental Exposures among Military Populations. The meeting provided an opportunity for stakeholders and policy makers to review key historical information in areas related to this subject, discuss current policy, and identify future initiatives. In small group sessions, one area of focus centered on linking individual service members and environmental exposure data to assess health risk. Discussion included describing the current Department of Defense approach to this issue, successes, problems, gaps, near future solutions to overcome gaps, and identification of those problems and gaps for which there are no easy, foreseeable, or near term solutions available. A summary of the discussion and determinations from this focus group is provided.