NEHA May 2024 Journal of Environmental Health

ADVANCEMENT OF THE PRACTICE

References Chorus, I., & Welker, M. (Eds.). (2021). Toxic cyanobacteria in water: A guide to their public health consequences, monitoring and management (2nd ed.). CRC Press and World Health Organization. https://www. who.int/publications/m/item/toxic-cyano bacteria-in-water---second-edition Robertson, M., & Kuwayama, Y. (2020, June 26). Quantifying the socioeconomic benefits of using satellite data to detect cyanobacte- rial harmful algal blooms . Resources for the Future. https://www.resources.org/ common-resources/quantifying-socioeco nomic-benefits-using-satellite-data-detect- cyanobacterial-harmful-algal-blooms/ Schae er, B.A., Bailey, S.W., Conmy, R.N., Galvin, M., Ignatius, A.R., Johnston, J.M., Keith, D.J., Lunetta, R.S., Parmar, R., Stumpf, R.P., Urquhart, E.A., Werdell, P.J., & Wolfe, K. (2018). Mobile device application for monitoring cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms using Sentinel-3 sat- ellite Ocean and Land Colour Instruments. Environmental Modelling & Software , 109 , 93–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft. 2018.08.015 Schae er, B.A., Reynolds, N., Ferriby, H., Salls, W., Smith, D., Johnston, J.M., & Myer, M. (2024). Forecasting freshwater cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms for Sentinel-3 satellite resolved U.S. lakes and reservoirs. Journal of Environmental Man- agement , 349 , Article 119518. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119518

by U.S. EPA scientists (Schae er et al., 2024) using recreation Alert Level 1 from the World Health Organization as a threshold (Chorus & Welker, 2021). With this approach, U.S. EPA demonstrated how cyanoHABs might be forecasted using a probabilistic spatial and temporal model trained with CyAN satellite data (U.S. EPA, 2024b). Analogous to weather forecasting, this forecasting approach can esti- mate the probability of cyanoHABs in large water bodies across the continental U.S. Initial tests of the studied approach resulted in a 90% overall prediction accuracy in the ability to identify the presence or absence of cyanoHABs correctly for an entire calendar year. To support water quality and recreational water managers in creating a more compre- hensive management toolbox for protecting human health, public health professionals can use the CyANWeb application to comple- ment existing capabilities in field monitoring. When cyanoHAB forecast modeling becomes available, the use of that tool—in addition to the satellite and in-field analysis—could provide environmental managers a compre- hensive way to identify cyanoHABs early, e”ciently, and e ectively, thereby increasing protections for human health, pets, livestock, and public resources. Corresponding Author: John M. Johnston, Supervisory Ecologist, O”ce of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 960 College Station Road, Athens, GA 30605. Email: johnston.johnm@epa.gov.

Stroming, S., Robertson, M., Mabee, B., Kuwayama Y., & Schae er, B. (2020). Quantifying the human health benefits of using satellite information to detect cyano- bacterial harmful algal blooms and manage recreational advisories in U.S. lakes. Geo- Health , 4 (9), e2020GH000254. https://doi. org/10.1029/2020GH000254 United Nations. (2023). Sustainable Devel- opment Goals—Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all . https://www. un.org/sustainabledevelopment/water- and-sanitation/ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2023). Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) . https://www.epa.gov/water-research/ cyanobacteria-assessment-network-cyan U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2024a). Cyanobacteria Assessment Net- work Application (CyAN app). https://www. epa.gov/water-research/cyanobacteria- assessment-network-application-cyan-app U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2024b). EPA researchers develop forecast- ing approach to predict harmful cyanobac- terial blooms for U.S. lakes . https://www. epa.gov/sciencematters/epa-researchers- develop-forecasting-approach-predict- harmful-cyanobacterial-blooms Utah Department of Environmental Quality. (2023). Utah Lake recreational monitoring . https://deq.utah.gov/water-quality/utah- lake-recreational-monitoring

Show them you are an expert. You are dedicated to environmental health. Earn the Registered Environmental Health Specialist/ Registered Sanitarian (REHS/RS) credential to let your community and employer know just how much. The REHS/RS credential is the gold standard in environmental health. Learn the requirements: neha.org/rehs-rs-credential

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Volume 86 • Number 9

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