Training

 

TERA is committed to working with the public to improve knowledge and understanding of risk assessment issues.  Our education goal is to share our knowledge with others who are interested in learning risk assessment through developing our risk assessment training courses suitable to a variety of audiences including industry, government, the legal community, academia, nonprofits, and citizens' groups.  We strive to make risk issues and the underlying science understandable to the intended audience and skill level.

 

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Upcoming Courses:

 

 


Dose Response Boot Camp

 

This course is a 5-day  intensive hands-on training in hazard characterization and dose-response assessment.  Beginners through expert toxicological risk assessors will learn advanced methods, as well as enhance their understanding and skills in the basics.  Course lectures are supplemented with daily hands-on application exercises.  For information on the dates of the next Boot Camp Course, registration and more details please see the Boot Camp webpage. Click here for the course brochure.


Customized Courses

 

TERA also offers private Boot Camp training sessions for your staff (available as a 3, 4, or 5 –day course), and can provide risk assessment training at your site.  We will work with you to develop training materials tailored to your specific needs, using existing courses and/or developing new ones.  We can also meet with your group to discuss risk assessment issues on a less formal basis.  For more information on TERA's training services, please contact Ms. Patricia Nance.


Existing Courses

Practioners Guide to Risk Assessment for Developmental & Reproductive Toxicology (DART)
This 4 hour webinar is intended for health scientists and product stewardship professionals who need to consider the potential for reproductive and developmental effects of their chemicals or products. The learning objectives for this course are: interpreting adversity of DART endpoints; applying dose-response techniques; evaluating mode of action and human relevance; optimizing testing needs and strategies; and understanding key concepts in current risk assessment guidance for DART. For a list of current dates, please see the Webinar webpage.
Noncancer & Cancer Risk Assessment (6 hours)

 

This 6 hour course provides an overview and basic concepts of noncancer and cancer risk assessment followed by detailed discussion of the methods used in chemical risk assessment. The presentation also covers the application of the latest methodology used risk assessment. A step-by-step discussion of sample cases will be conducted to further elaborate the decision making process in chemical risk assessment.

Dosimetric Adjustments in Dose Response Assessment (4 hours)

 

 

This 4 hour course is designed to provide basic training in dosimetric adjustments involved in dose-response assessment.  The participants will learn the significance of conducting dosimetric adjustment, and how to conduct it.  The topics will include interspecies oral dose adjustment for noncancer and cancer assessment, cancer unit risk or slope factor conversion, inhalation exposure concentration unit conversion, human equivalent concentration (HEC) calculation for particle and vapor exposure.

Bench Mark Dose Modeling (8 hours)

 

This 8 hour course is designed to give an overview of benchmark modeling software for cancer and noncancer dose-response assessment, and provide hands-on experience in using the EPA BMDS software.  Through this training course, participants will learn the basic concept of the BMD approach, appropriate application of BMD modeling in cancer and noncancer dose-response assessment, model and parameter selections during BMD modeling, data selection and model run, and selecting an appropriate BMD as a point of departure in a human health risk assessment.  This training will cover all the BMD models available in the latest version of EPA’s BMDS software, such as continuous models, dichotomous models, cancer model, and nested models. 

Use of Chemical Specific Adjustment Factor (CSAF) (6 hours)

 

This 6 hour course will teach the participants methods for application of the new IPCS guidance on the use of chemical-specific adjustment factors (CSAFs), as a refinement to the uncertainty factor approach.  A review of the use of uncertainty factors and historical perspective on the reliance on quantitative data to develop values for inter- and intra-species extrapolation will be presented as background.  The course will focus on the IPCS methodology for CSAF development, including the thinking process and steps used for evaluating data.  Examples and classroom activities will be used as instructional aids.