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ToxStrategies is pleased to announce the additions of Dr. LeeAnn Racz as a Senior Engineer and Ms. Jennifer Bare as a Scientist III.   Dr. Racz comes to the Exposure Sciences Practice with a diverse background in environmental assessment, human health risk assessment, and industrial hygiene, gained in large part from her 23-year career in the U.S. Air Force. She is a Board-Certified Environmental Engineer and Certified Industrial Hygienist, with expertise in environmental health and workplace exposure assessment and environmental engineering and has led teams involved in compliance education, emergency response readiness, and response and recovery at read more…

The Biden Administration has directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to evaluate policies under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) New Chemicals Program to ensure their compliance with statutory requirements.  This evaluation has resulted in significant changes, announced by EPA on March 29, 2021 as to how EPA will assess and manage the risks associated with new chemicals, including changes to: The introduction of significant new use rules (SNURs), Assumptions about protections afforded by OSHA’s read more…

Ms. Mina Suh, along with colleagues within EpidStrategies (a Division of ToxStrategies), and external collaborators, has been conducting research on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), especially as it relates to infants and children in the United States. In a prospective viral surveillance study, which was recently accepted for publication by the Journal of Pediatrics (preview here), Ms. Suh and researchers from the medical research community described common respiratory infections, including influenza, RSV, and rhinovirus/enterovirus, in infants from December 2019 through April 2020, across outpatient, emergency department, and inpatient settings in Davidson County, Tennessee. Testing for SARS-Cov-2 was added with the onset of Covid-19.  Results show that RSV is detected across various clinical settings (outpatient, emergency department, inpatient) and has the read more…

ToxStrategies is pleased to announce new quantitative structure activity relationship [(Q)SAR] service offerings, including ICH M7 pharmaceutical impurity assessments. We offer expertise in the use and interpretation of Derek Nexus and Leadscope Model Applier (LSMA) to meet guidance specifications that are essential to the pharmaceutical industry. We are well versed in the use of these (Q)SAR platforms to provide predictions for a variety of endpoints, such as bacterial and mammalian genotoxicity, carcinogenicity, acute toxicity, skin sensitization, target organ toxicities, reproductive and developmental toxicity endpoints, and others. These commercially available (Q)SAR programs are used to support mutagenicity assessment on projects ranging from single drug impurities to complementing analyses of compound synthesis pathways, including starting read more…

March 27, 2021, is fast approaching and a date to note on your calendar. This day marks the implementation of the European Commission’s new regulation and update to the General Food Law Regulation, aimed at increasing the transparency of risk assessments for foods. This new regulation directly affects how the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) performs their risk assessments and how stakeholders interact with EFSA, notify studies, and submit dossiers. While the goal of the initiative is to increase the transparency of the risk assessment by strengthening the reliability, objectivity, and independence of the read more…

Among President Biden’s many Executive Orders in the first days of his administration was one titled, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.” In response to this and other orders and directives, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is planning to review on five final rules the Agency issued under the prior administration (on January 6, 2021) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that address five persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals (listed below). The USEPA determined that these chemicals require expedited action under TSCA, given the read more…

Dr. Candace Doepker will present a webinar titled, “Myths and Facts about Caffeine: An Expert Evaluation of the Current Science.” Sponsored by the International Food Information Council (IFIC), the webinar will go live at 1 p.m. ET on March 30, 2021 (registration available here). The information presented will include IFIC’s latest research on consumer behavior regarding caffeine, and Dr. Doepker will address topics such as caffeine toxicity and safety, its metabolism in the body, and current controversies in caffeine research. Dr. Doepker is a toxicologist and is a Principal Scientist and the Practice read more…