http://www.tera.org/about/news.html Independent, Non-Profit Science for Public Health Protection Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:28:00 GMT http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0032 Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:15:00 GMT Dr. Andrew Maier co-authored the cover article of the April issue of the Synergist – published by the American Industrial Hygiene Association - on the future of risk assessment in occupational health. Dr. Maier is Director of TERA and a certified industrial hygienist and board certified toxicologist. The article highlights trends in occupational risk assessment and growing opportunities for technology transfer with methods used in allied risk assessment specialties.   http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0031 Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:15:00 GMT Please register now for the 2012 TRAC (Toxicology and Risk Assessment Conference) April 30, 2012 - May 3, 2012. The Plenary session will be on Hydraulic Fracturing. Main conference sessions will span issues related to in vitro data and models, nano materials, physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling, occupational epidemiology, occupational health risk assessment, biological toxicants, and issues in study design and data acquisition. Workshops on specific risk assessment methodologies will be held on the days before and after the two main conference days. Also featured is a poster session, with trainee competition and prizes, for which the poster abstract deadline is March 30, 2012. Register now at http://toxicologyandriskassessmentconference.org/registration.htm   http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0030 Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:15:00 GMT The goal of the SOT "Contemporary Concepts in Toxicology" Meeting: Building for Better Decisions: Multi-Scale Integration of Human Health and Environmental Data (TERA is a co-sponsor) is to bring together scientists from across the exposure-dose-response continuum for both ecological and health endpoints, and from other communities (e.g., clinical/biomedical informatics, defense, intelligence) to discuss the requirements for data accessibility, data storage, data management, data analysis, and data interoperability that are becoming increasingly critical for computational modeling, research, and regulatory decision making. For more infomation check out the meeting website at: https://www.toxicology.org/ai/meet/cct_b4bd.asp   http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0028 Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:15:00 GMT Dr. Ray York and Dr. Lynne Haber will be presenting a 4-hour webinar on June 13, 2012. It will cover issues related to potential for reproductive and developmental effects of chemicals or products. For more details go to the Webinars page at www.tera.org/webinars   http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0027 Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:15:00 GMT Dr. Ross, MD, JD, is a board-certified occupational medicine physician. She has experience in clinical and consulting occupational/environmental health activities in varied settings, including corporate employee health, medical monitoring programs and litigation support activities. Dr. Ross served as the Occupational Medicine Residency Program Director at the University of Cincinnati (UC) from 2004 through 2011. She held faculty appointments related to her teaching activities in the UC College of Medicine Departments of Environmental Health and Public Health Sciences and in the UC College of Law. Dr. Ross is the founder and president of Environmental and Occupational Health Consultants, Inc. Based on her training and experience in these roles she has a robust history of evaluating the effects of chemical exposures on human health outcomes and providing critical analyses of human effects data for assessing health risk. In past affiliations with TERA, Dr. Ross has provided peer review of medical management guidelines for diagnosis and treatment protocols for chemical exposures during emergency events.   http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0026 Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:15:00 GMT Dr. Sandhu is a pharmaceutical toxicologist with over 10 years of experience working in senior scientific or consulting roles in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Her expertise includes all aspects of support in these business sectors from drug discovery and development through to post-marketing product support. She has also authored dozens of scientific publications and provided scientific review for in-license candidates and novel products. In recent years, Dr. Sandhu has worked as a toxicological risk assessor for pharmaceutical, personal healthcare and consumer product companies. Dr. Sandhu completed a PhD in Physiology at the University of Toronto, Canada and post-doctoral training in Cardiology at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Throughout her training, she received multiple competitive research awards. She is also a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.   http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0025 Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:15:00 GMT Dr. Dourson will be giving a presentation on "How Individual Variability Is Currently Factored into Risk Assessment/Regulation/Decision Making". The workshop will explore new and innovative approaches to characterizing individual variability arising from endogenous, biological factors and its impact on susceptibility to risks from environmental exposures. For more information on the workshop or to register for the workshop, check out the website at http://nas-sites.org/emergingscience/workshops/individual-variability/   http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0024 Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:15:00 GMT TERA and the Australasian College of Toxicology and Risk Assessment Inc (ACTRA) teamed up to offer a 4-day course on dose-response assessment. It will be held July 23-26 in Syndey, following the World Congress on Risk. For more information check out the course webpage. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0023 Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:15:00 GMT ITERate is a new program from TERA to review human health risk assessment values from published peer-reviewed journals for loading onto International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER) (www.tera.org/iter; http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/). The inclusion of these toxicity values on ITERallows for easier access to new data, allows information to reach a worldwide audience in a user friendly format, helps to foster use of the latest science, and promotes collaboration among risk assessors. Contact willis@tera.org or dourson@tera.org to submit your publication or to volunteer as a reviewer. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0022 Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:15:00 GMT Panel members are sought from a diversity of affiliations and areas of expertise, particularly biology/toxicology, risk assessment, and statistical/modeling. Panel members will be chosen by the ARA steering committee (http://www.allianceforrisk.org/ARA_Steering_Committee.htm) and will serve for 2-3 years. Please send nominations and a CV Oliver Kroner at Kroner@tera.org by January 26, 2012. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0021 Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:15:00 GMT TERA worked with the New Zealand Ministry of Health on a project regarding the health risks associated with mercury expsoure from CFLs. It as accepted for publications by the Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology journal. The article is entitled “Human Health Risks from Mercury Exposure from Broken Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs).” The article is based on a screening assessment report we conducted for the New Zealand Ministry of Health. It utilized the exposure work done by the State of Maine and applied various risk levels to determine the potential for human health effects in various scenarios. Check back for the full citation of the article. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0020 Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:15:00 GMT Michael Dourson joined five other esteemed scientists, Gail Charnley, Thomas Cluderay, George Gray, Tom Roberts and Nancy Stoner in publishing a Forum on perchlorate published in The Environmental Forum (www.eli.org). "The Perchloarte Debate: Is the Chemical Worth Regulating". 2011. The Environmental Forum. Nov/Dec. Vol. 28(6), page 46-53. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0019 Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:15:00 GMT The P and G/TERA Team compiled a large database of reproductive and developmental toxicity data. The data were then analyzed to calculate Thresholds of Toxicological Concern (TTC values). The calculated TTC values were compared to existing TTC values. Based on the results of this comparison, we confirmed that the current TTC values can be applied to the reproductive and developmental endpoints. Correlation of chemical structure with reproductive and developmental toxicity as it relates to the use of the threshold of toxicological concern. Original Research Article. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, Available online 10 October 2011 Michael C. Laufersweiler, Bernard Gadagbui, Irene M. Baskerville-Abraham, Andrew Maier, Alison Willis, Anthony R. Scialli, Gregory J. Carr, Susan P. Felter, Karen Blackburn, George Daston http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0018 Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:15:00 GMT Dr. Ray York is now a TERA Fellow. Dr. York is a board-certified toxicologist with almost 30 years of experience in the field of toxicology, specializing in reproductive and developmental toxicology. He has served as a study director on over 700 GLP safety evaluation studies, and published over a 100 manuscripts, review articles, book chapters and abstracts, and has been an invited speaker at international conferences. Dr. York earned his Ph.D. in Toxicology at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Kettering Laboratory and completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Children’s Hospital Research Foundation in Cincinnati, in the area of developmental toxicology. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0017 Thu, 1 Sep 2011 12:15:00 GMT TERA led a team of scientists supporting work by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in reviewing the science supporting air quality criteria development. This work is part of a broader OMOE effort to document its process and enhance clarity and consistency for stakeholders. The review is also intended to identify opportunities to refine the methods for developing ambient air quality criteria. As part of this effort, the TERA team conducted a jurisdictional review, considering the approaches used by a variety of jurisdictions in Canada, by US Federal and State agencies, as well as approaches of international and national authoritative bodies. The aim of the review was to identify approaches, issues, and best practices for addressing issues including: 1) factors affecting the choice of averaging times for sampling and setting of air standards; 2) definitions and applications of chronic, subchronic, and acute exposure and effects; 3) uncertainty factors and the interplay between uncertainty factors and the determination of the point of departure; 4) allocation of exposure across routes and consideration of combined exposures; and 5) linear vs. non-linear / threshold vs. non-threshold dose response. The jurisdictional review was followed by a workshop where OMOE scientists discussed with each other and with the TERA team issues related to the jurisdictional review. The workshop participants developed a consensus on best scientific practices to address most of the issues considered, including the development of novel analytical approaches to considering issues such as allocation. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0016 Thu, 1 Sep 2011 12:12:00 GMT The Workshop III meeting report is now available at http://allianceforrisk.org/Workshop/Beyond_SciDec_Workshop_3_report_Final.doc. The Report presents key conclusions from the panel discussion on three key themes for Workshop III: problem formulation, mode of action, and endogenous/background exposures. It also presents the results of panel discussions on case studies and plans for next steps. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0015 Thu, 1 Sep 2011 12:12:00 GMT TERA has proudly joined the Interstate Technology and Resource Council (ITRC), a state-led coalition working together with industry and stakeholders to achieve regulatory acceptance of environmental technologies. ITRC consists of 50 states, the District of Columbia, multiple federal partners, industry participants, and other stakeholders, cooperating to break down barriers and reduce compliance costs, making it easier to use new technologies, and helping states maximize resources. http://www.itrcweb.org/ http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0014 Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:12:00 GMT On June 29, 2011, the ITERate panel determined that the risk value derived in “Proposal for a revised Reference Concentration (RfC) for manganese based on recent epidemiological studies” by Bailey et al. (2009) should be included on the ITER database under manganese oxide. The panel conducted a thorough, systematic discussion of the key data and decisions using the charge questions. Panel members were also asked to note any substantive points or issues to include in the ITER file that they thought would be helpful for the ITER user to be aware of when considering this value. The meeting report and ITERate information can be found at http://www.tera.org/peer/ITERReview/index.html, and the ITER database chemical entry at http://iter.ctcnet.net/publicurl/pub_search_list.cfm http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0013 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:12:00 GMT   TERA works with National Library of Medicine to support development of Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management (CHEMM). TERA scientists and staff provide toxicology support and significant contributions to development of a newly released database, the Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management: CHEMM (US Department of Health and Human Services). The CHEMM website, hosted and created by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), provides access to comprehensive sets of information via a user friendly interface. In short, CHEMM is a complete one stop resource containing information on planning, preparing for, and responding to, chemical emergencies such as terrorist attacks, transportation spills, industrial explosions, building collapse, and natural disasters. Anticipated users include first responders, first receivers, other health care providers, and planners. CHEMM allows these users to plan for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents involving chemicals.  http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0012 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:12:00 GMT   The next Boot Camp will be held September 19-23, 2011 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Class is Monday thru Thursday from 8:00am - 5:00 pm, Friday class will conclude around 2 p.m. Register before August 19th and save $200! 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 will be supplemented with daily hands-on application exercises. Interested individuals should have a basic understanding of Toxicology and interest in developing skills in human health risk assessment. Additional logistic information on the course will be on our website at http://www.tera.org/Global/Bootcamp/index.html within the next few weeks. On-line registration should is also available at http://www.tera.org/Global/Bootcamp/registration.html.  http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0011 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:12:00 GMT   - Dr. Michael Dourson is the current president of the Mixtures Specialty Session of the Society of Toxicology (SOT). - Dr. Gadagbui is currently the Vice President of the African Society for Toxicological Sciences, a Councilor for Ohio Valley - Society of Toxicology (OVSOT), and Secretary of Ohio Society for Risk Analysis (OSRA). He was also the first and former President of the Toxicologists of African Origin (TAO), a Specialty Interest Group of Society of Toxicology (SOT). - Dr. Andrew Maier was elected as the incoming Vice-President of the Occupational and Public Health Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology. - Dr. Irene Abraham is currently the President of the Society of Toxicology’s Toxicoloists of African Origin (TAO) - Special Interest Group (SIG). She also serves on the SIG-Collaboration Group, and serves as a HOST mentor for SOT’s Committee for Diversity Initiatives Undergraduate Program. - Ms. Patricia Nance was elected to the Alliance for Chemical Safety's Executive Committee as the Communications Chair. She also serves on the Society for Risk Analysis's Wolrd Congress organizing committee. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0010 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:10:00 GMT  Dr. Haber was one of approximately 80 workshop participants, who included representatives from government agencies, academia, NGOs, and industry. The workshop, entitled “Threshold of Toxicological Concern: Scientific Challenges and Approaches” was cosponsored by CEFIC-LRI, ILSI-Europe, the European Partnership for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EPAA), and the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. The workshop goals included identifying barriers to broader use of TTC and approaches for overcoming the barriers. The outcome of the workshop will be published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0009 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:00:00 GMT Dr. Andrew Maier gave invited presentations on concepts intended to advance the science on several challenging issues in occupational risk assessment. In a session on information resources for industrial hygienists involved in emergency response to chemical incidents he provided a decision framework for identifying and selecting relevant and reliable exposure guidelines. The concept of cumulative risk has continued to gain emphasis for occupational scenarios, and he presented examples of techniques that may allow for early effect biomarkers to serve as a point of integration for cumulative effects of multiple stresses. Such techniques may pave the way for use principles of the Exposome concept to be more fully embraced in IH practice. As part of a special science symposium session on the challenges of assessing health impacts of alternative temporal exposure patterns, Dr. Maier laid out a suite of alternative assessment strategies, including consideration for setting task-based exposure limits. These presentations were given at sessions of the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition in June 2011 and are available from the AIHA. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0008 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EST Dr. Michael Dourson was selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) to serve as scientific expert for the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/0007 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EST Dr. John Reichard joins TERA as a Staff Toxicologist. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/news0006 Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EST "Best of Session" Award at AIHce. TERA authors, Andy Maier and Ann Parker, received a "Best of Session" award for their poster "Application of an Updated Methodology for Deriving Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health (IDLH) Values" presented at the American Industrial Hygiene Continuing Education Conference (AIHce) on May 17, 2011. The poster summarizes the updated methodology for deriving IDLH values using a weight of evidence (WOE) approach, and discusses the challenges encountered when analyzing the data under the new methods. The new methodology will be published as a Current Intelligence Bulletin (CIB) by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) once the peer review process is complete. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/news0005 Tue, 17 May 2011 09:07:00 GMT Under the Alliance for Risk Assessment, a collaboration of 45 government, industry, academic, and consulting organizations came together to further the conversation set forth by the NAS (2009) Science and Decisions. Twenty-five case studies highlighting problem formulation, mode of action, and background/endogenous risk were presented. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/news0001 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:07:00 GMT Dr. Maier of TERA gave an invited lecture to the staff of the National Library of Medicine Specialized Information Service. The presentation focused on drivers and transitions in the field of human health risk assessment for environmental chemicals and how these changes in the field may affect information resource use. See Presentation here. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/news0002 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:28:00 GMT One aspect of TERA's non-profit mission is to enhance risk assessment science through scientific exchange. Consistent with this vision Dr. Maier, TERA's Director, has accepted a position as a Toxicology Fellow via an Interagency Personnel Agreement with the Education and Information Division of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Dr. Maier will work at NIOSH on a part-time basis through October 1, 2011 conducting research to further develop methods in occupational risk assessment. http://www.tera.org/about/news.html http://www.tera.org/about/news0003 Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:28:00 GMT A critical aspect of high-quality assessments is thorough peer review. In support of that goal, Lynne Haber served on the peer review panel for EPA's IRIS assessment for hexachloroethane.