Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA)

2300 Montana Avenue, Suite 409, Cincinnati OH 45211
Phone: 513-542-7475
Fax: 513-542-7487

Email: TERA@TERA.org

TERA News

 
TERA is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation organized for scientific and educational purposes.  The mission of TERA is to support the protection of public health by developing, reviewing and communicating risk assessment values and analyses, improving risk methods through research, and educating risk assessors and managers and the public on risk assessment issues.  TERA provides sponsors and the public with independent and objective opinions. Five of our toxicologists are certified by the American Board of Toxicology.  TERA's goal is to develop successful partnerships leading to improvements in the science and practice of risk assessment. Feel free to contact us at TERA@TERA.org

Fourth Quarter 2008

TERA has been awarded The Independent Charities Seal of Excellence.  This Seal of Excellence is awarded to the members of Independent Charities of America and Local Independent Charities of America that have, upon rigorous independent review, been able to certify, document, and demonstrate on an annual basis that they meet the highest standards of public accountability, program effectiveness, and cost effectiveness.  These standards include those required by the US Government for inclusion in the Combined Federal Campaign, probably the most exclusive fund drive in the world.  Of the 1,000,000 charities operating in the United States today, it is estimated that fewer than 50,000, or 5 percent, meet or exceed these standards, and, of those, fewer than 2,000 have been awarded this Seal. 

  • We recently launched a new database that is a companion to ITER called the Risk Information Exchange (RiskIE). Explore RiskIE at http://www.allianceforrisk.org/RiskIE.htm.
  • We recently published a manuscript about our ITER and RiskIE (Risk Information Exchange) databases:  Wullenweber, A., et al.  2008.  Resources for global risk assessment: The International Toxicity Estimates for Risk (ITER) and Risk Information Exchange (RiskIE) databases.  Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol.  doi:10.1016/j.taap.2007.12.035

Third Quarter 2008

  • The Green Chemistry Initiative Science Advisory Panel, which includes Dr. Michael Dourson, has completed its report on advancing green chemistry in California to DTSC Director Maureen Gorsen. The report describes the work of the Panel, especially its process in developing green chemistry options, and presents 38 options to advance green chemistry the Science Advisory Panel has identified for the state to consider.

  • TERA scientists - Lynne Haber, Michael Dourson, Andy Maier and Jay Zhao (now with U.S. EPA) contributed text that formed the basis of chapter 7 of the book: Risk Assessment Report No. 19, Nickel.  NEDO and CRM, AIST, Japan.  TERA worked with Japanese authors to develop the risk assessment text, and provided references to assist the Japanese scientists in the toxicity text.  The book has not been translated into English. 

  • Dr. Lynne Haber served as a peer reviewer for the Institute of Medicine’s Review of ATSDR’s Great Lakes Report Drafts.  The letter report is available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12476

  • Dr. Lynne Haber served on EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) review of EPA’s Land Research Program mid-cycle review.  See more about the Land Research Program at www.epa.gov/ord/lrp

Second Quarter 2008

First Quarter 2008

  • Lynne Haber co-taught a workshop on “Recent Developments in Risk Assessment - International Frameworks for Evaluating Toxicity Data for Human Health Assessment,” together with Bette Meek of the University of Ottawa at the 2nd World Congress on Risk. 

  • On January 28, 2008, Oliver Kroner was elected to the Board of Directors of the Northside Community Council for a two-year term.

  • Dose Response Assessment Boot Camp held March 31 - April 4, 2008 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

  • Meeting Report on Peer Consultation on Relationship Between PAC Profile and Toxicity of Petroleum Substances now available.

  • On Wednesday, January 16, Dan Briggs  and Jacqueline Patterson accepted an award on behalf of TERA for “Excellence in Risk Communication.”  This award was presented to Dan and Jacqueline by the Alliance for Chemical Safety.  This Alliance presented us with this award ”for creating a peer consultation process for the development and review of risk documentation, particularly related to evaluating risks to children.  The program has grown over 6 years to involve scientists from scores of organizations, both in the US and abroad…..”  Congratulations Jacqueline and Dan!

  • Jacqueline Patterson will co-chair the annual meeting events sub-committee of the SRA Conferences and Workshops Committee

Fourth Quarter 2007

  • Meg Poehlmann has been appointed to the Board of Trustees for Oxbow Inc.  Oxbow Inc. is a wetlands preservation organization whose purpose is to protect the seasonal wetlands and floodplain at the confluence of the Great Miami and Ohio Rivers from development. Oxbow, Inc. pursues this goal by raising funds to purchase land and conservation easements in the floodplain.

  • Michael Dourson and Jay Zhao of EPA presented a course on risk assessment principals and practice to the Shanghai Center for Disease Control.  This week long course, taught in Shanghai, China, had approximately 40 participants from several Chinese regulatory authorities.

  • Jacqueline Patterson has volunteered to participate in the City of Cincinnati Climate Protection Initiative.  Citizen Task Teams will work to develop proposals for a  regional Climate Action Plan for reducing green house gas emissions (GHG.) 

  • Dose Response Assessment Boot Camp a success, 2008 dates are now being set.

Third Quarter 2007

Second Quarter 2007

First Quarter 2007

  • TERA proudly announces its DOSE RESPONSE ASSESSMENT BOOT CAMP

  • TERA has a new publication - Dourson, M.L. and Parker, A. 2007. Past and Future Use of Default Assumptions and Uncertainty Factors: Default Assumptions, Misunderstandings, and New Concepts. Hum Ecol Risk Assess. 13(1):82-88.

  • TERA cosponsors the visit of Chinese Scholar, Dr. Xiaoli Duan, for presentations on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon biomarkers and environmental research in China.  Pictured are TERA's Dr. Jay Zhao and Dr. Xiaoli Duan.

  • Lynne Haber, TERA’s Research Program Manager, and Jay Zhao, TERA’s Assessment (VERA) Program Manager, will be co-chairing a workshop on “Replacing Default Values for Uncertainty Factors with Chemical Specific Adjustment Factors: Reducing Uncertainty in Noncancer Risk Assessment” at the 2007 Toxicology and Risk Assessment Conference to be held in West Chester, OH, April 23- 26, 2007.  Registration information is available here

  • Dr. Lynne Haber provided technical support for revisions to EPA’s Framework for Metal’s Risk Assessment, at http://www.epa.gov/osa/metalsframework/.  TERA’s Associate Director, Dr. Andrew Maier, and TERA Associate Dr. Rick Hertzberg also contributed to the document. The Framework outlines key principles about metals that EPA will be considered in conducting human health and ecological risk assessments.  Topics addressed in the framework include: principles for conducting metals risk assessments, environmental chemistry and fate and transport, and assessments related to human health, aquatic life, and land issues.

  • ARA Steering Committee navigates into new year.  Members of the Alliance for Risk Assessment Steering Committee held their first monthly meeting January, 29 2007. Keep abreast of Steering Committee developments with the new enhanced ARA website, which includes Member information, meeting agendas, and meeting minutes. www.allianceforrisk.org.

  • TERA anticipates scheduling a VCCEP Peer Consultation Meeting on p-dioxane (CAS No. 123-91-1) in the first half of 2007.  Nominations are now being accepted for ad hoc panel members for this peer consultation.  Go to the following link for more details.  Ad Hoc Nominations open for p-Dioxane

Fourth Quarter 2006

  • Lynne Haber, TERA’s Research Program Manager, served on EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) subcommittee on land restoration and preservation research.  The BOSC report is available at http://www.epa.gov/osp/bosc/reports.htm
  • Scientists from TERA’s Peer Review and Consultation Program, Jacqueline Patterson and Joan Strawson, recently submitted a manuscript entitled “Engaging Expert Peers in the Development of Risk Assessments.”  This paper was coauthored with Bette Meek and Robert Liteplo of Health Canada and discusses how the principles and practices of peer review can be extended to other types of peer involvement activities (i.e. peer input and peer consultation) to develop high quality risk assessment work products.  A copy of the submitted manuscript will be posted on the TERA website shortly (LINK).
  • TERA scientists contributed two chapters to the newly published book Toxicokinetics and Risk Assessment (J. Lipscomb and E. Ohanian, ed; Informa Health Care, New York; www.informahealthcare.com).  Lynne Haber, TERA’s research program manager, wrote the overview chapter (Haber, L.  2006.  Overview of Approach to Noncancer Risk Assessment.  In:  Use of Toxicokinetic Data in Risk Assessment.  J.C. Lipscomb and E.V. Ohanian ed.  Informa Healthcare, New York.  Pp. 1-26.), and Michael Dourson, TERA’s director, and Dan Drinan, TERA intern, wrote the chapter on sensitive populations (Dourson, M. and Drinan, D., 2006.  Sensitive Populations and Risk Assessment.  In:  Use of Toxicokinetic Data in Risk Assessment.  J.C. Lipscomb and E.V. Ohanian ed.  Informa Healthcare, New York.  Pp 251-267).
  • Lynne Haber, TERA’s Research Program Manager, will be teaching a workshop at the SRA annual meeting, together with Bette Meek of Health Canada and John Lipscomb of US EPA, on chemical-specific adjustment factors, an approach for replacing default uncertainty factors with values based on data.
  • Ad Hoc Panel nominations for VCCEP Peer Consultation on Ethylbenzene ends December 4, 2006.
  • Joan Strawson has been appointed to the Adjunct Faculty at Sandhills Community College in Southern Pines, North Carolina.  She is teaching Introduction to Criminal Justice. 

Third Quarter 2006

  • Andrew Maier, TERA’s Associate Director, has been elected as the 2007 Secretary of the American Industrial Hygiene Association Workplace Environmental Exposure Levels Committee
  • Peer Review on Sudbury Soils Study set for September 20-21, 2006 in Sudbury, Ontario 
  • TERA’s Director, Dr. Michael Dourson, was recently selected to serve as a consultant to the Dental Products Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration.
  • TERA contributes to GAO report on human health risk assessment.  GAO recently issued its report Human Health Risk Assessment: EPA Has Taken Steps to Strengthen Its Process, but Improvements Needed in Planning, Data Development, and Training.  (GAO report number GAO-06-595).  The full report is available http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06595.pdf
  • TERA’s Associate Director, Dr. Andrew Maier was recently selected to serve on the National Academy of Sciences committee on Protecting Occupants of DoD Buildings From Chemical or Biological Release (Immune Buildings Study).  Dr. Maier’s training and experience in industrial ventilation, toxicology, and risk assessment were key factors in his selection.

Second Quarter 2006

First Quarter 2006

  • Announcing a CRADA to Improve Cancer Risk Assessment

Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (www.tera.org ), NCTR (http://www.fda.gov/nctr/index.html) and Environ (http://www.environcorp.com/) have established a collaborative relationship to enhance the use of mutagenicity data for informing the mode of action analysis for cancer risk assessment, by investigating a new approach to quantitatively compare mutation data with tumor data.  The essence of the approach involves comparing the in vivo mutagenicity dose-response (using the Big Blue® rat, mouse, or other transgenic in vivo shuttle vector model) in the tumor target tissue with the tumor dose response in the same rodent strain.  If the chemical causes cancer via a mutagenic mode-of-action three basic predictions exist:  

  • The frequency of induced mutations per target tissue will be higher than the frequency of tumors per target  tissue.   

  • Mutations will be observed prior to the observation of tumors (temporal relationship).

  • If a chemical is a mutagenic carcinogen, mutations should be induced at doses lower than those required to form tumors (dose-response).

Preliminary collaborative work between NCTR (led by Martha Moore, Bob Heflich, and Ralph Kodell) and Bruce Allen and Annette Shipp of Environ has found promising results for distinguishing the role of mutagenesis in carcinogenicity by chemicals that are mutagens (as defined by a series of genotoxicity/mutagenicity tests) and carcinogens, but which may or may not have mutation as their primary mode of carcinogenic action..  Better consideration of the impact of mutagenicity in the mode of action of these types of carcinogens would put cancer risk assessment, linear or not, on a firmer foundation.

Want to learn more?  Click here.

For further information, contact:

Lynne Haber                            Annette Shipp                           Martha Moore
 Haber@tera.org                       AShipp@environcorp.com       martha.moore@fda.hhs.gov
513-542-7475 x17                  318-255-2277                         870-543-7050
TERA                                       ENVIRON                              NCTR

Fourth Quarter 2005

Third Quarter 2005

Second Quarter 2005

TERA staff are teaching courses at the SRA annual meeting in December on:

First Quarter 2005

Fourth Quarter 2004

Third Quarter 2004

General Information

Need Adobe Reader to read these PDF files? Click here

Last updated:  11/07/2008

 

                                 © 2008 Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment