Writing a Critical Evaluation

Overview
BCERF's translational research on selected pesticides and their cancer risk is compiled into monograph-style technical reports called Critical Evaluations. These documents provide the scientific, medical, and regulatory community with comprehensive, up-to-date evaluations of the potential for pesticides and other environmental chemicals to affect the risk of breast cancer, and cancers at other sites in the body.

The body of literature that needs to be evaluated to assess the cancer risk of a particular pesticide is not only immense, but is often contained in unpublished studies that are difficult to assess, even by other scientists. BCERF's translational research efforts are greatly enhanced by the cooperation it receives from industry, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and public interest groups.

Access to More Information
Cooperation from these groups enables the multidisciplinary research team at BCERF to compile and critique not only the research that is available in the open scientific literature, but to make available summaries and critiques of the unpublished studies that have assessed the cancer causing potential of the pesticide. The EPA requires registrants to submit reports of long-term cancer bioassays as a part of the pesticide registration process. The inclusion of these unpublished studies in our cancer risk assessments is important, since other non-government agencies, such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), do not evaluate them in their cancer risk assessments. The BCERF translational research approach also allows the results of older studies to be re-evaluated, while taking into account any recent new developments.

Identifying the Research Gaps
Critical Evaluations not only present an assessment of the known published and unpublished scientific literature, they also identify the research gaps. Some environmental chemicals may not have been studied sufficiently to make firm conclusions on whether or not the chemical poses a cancer risk. Often, more research needs to be done. Our evaluations identify the types of studies that still need to be done to more fully understand the cancer risk of the chemical.

BCERF Cancer Risk Classification Scheme
BCERF uses a cancer risk classification scheme adapted from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) preamble. More information is available on the risk classification scheme page.

Peer-Review Process
All Critical Evaluations are sent to scientific experts at Cornell University, as well as to additional external scientific reviewers, who are experts in the field. This type of review is called a "peer review." It is an essential check by other scientists as to the quality of the writing, completeness of the information, and the scientific validity of the conclusions drawn by the author of the report.

Further Use of the Research
After a Critical Evaluation is complete, it's further translated into a fact sheet. A fact sheet is a concise, lay version of the evaluation written in a question and answer format. Fact sheets provide information on ways individuals can reduce their exposure to the pesticide being evaluated. The information in the fact sheets can then be used for informed decision-making and cancer risk reduction by lay audiences that normally do not have access to scientific assessments of the cancer risk of pesticides.