Latest News

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Kirby H. Tyndall, DABT and Dr. Julia E. Rager have joined ToxStrategies, Inc. and will be based in our Austin, TX office. Dr. Tyndall is a Senior Scientist and a board certified Toxicologist. She has over 25 years of experience specializing in the areas of toxicology, human health and ecological risk assessment, and development of risk-based cleanup levels. Dr. Tyndall has successfully used these tools to help design read more…

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of Response and Restoration recently made its Chemical Aquatic Fate and Effects (CAFE) database software available to the public. This software can be used to estimate the aquatic fate and effects for thousands of different chemicals, oils, and dispersants. The program can be downloaded and run on either Mac or Windows platforms. CAFE has two modules: (1) the Aquatic Fate module, that can be used to read more…

On July 2, 2015, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) submitted a petition to the Office of Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) for an administrative rulemaking to repeal or amend the Maximum Allowable Dose Level (MADL) for lead under Proposition 65.  The basis for the petition was three-fold: (1) the original MADL for lead, established in 1989, did not meet the standards set forth for determining a MADL under Proposition 65, (2) OEHHA did not re-evaluated read more…

ToxStrategies is pleased to announce a new publication titled Duodenal crypt health following exposure to Cr(VI): Micronucleus scoring, γ-H2AX immunostaining, and synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microscopy.  ToxStrategies’ own Dr. Chad Thompson is the lead author on this publication, while several other ToxStrategies’ scientists also served as co-authors. This research provides a comprehensive assessment of micronuclei in the crypts of Swiss roll duodenal sections from B6C3F1 mice following Cr(VI) exposure.  The study results found: Oral gavage of 50 mg/kg read more…

The EPA just released a draft database of 1,173 hydraulic fracturing-related chemicals that were listed in the external review draft Assessment of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas on Drinking Water Resources (released June 4, 2015). The database provides physicochemical and toxicological information from a host of different sources, including: EPI Suite, LeadScope, QikiProp, Reaxys, IRIS, PPRTV, ATSDR, among others. The database also contains background information about how the list of read more…

On June 11, 2015, EPA released two technical guidance documents for evaluating vapor intrusion: OSWER Technical Guide for Assessing and Mitigating the Vapor Intrusion Pathway from Subsurface Vapor Sources to Indoor Air (VI Guidance) Technical Guide for Addressing Petroleum Vapor Intrusion at Leaking Underground Storage Tank Sites (Petroleum UST VI Guidance) The VI Guidance provides a five-step process for evaluating whether the VI exposure pathway is complete and recommendations for completing a human health risk read more…

The EPA has been conducting a 5-year, state-of-the-science assessment to determine the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing activities on drinking water resources in the United States. On June 4th, the EPA released an External Review Draft report, titled Assessment of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing for Oil and Gas on Drinking Water Resources. The assessment found that “hydraulic fracturing activities have not led to widespread, systematic impacts to drinking water resources” but also “identifies read more…

One of ToxStrategies’ Principal Scientists, Deb Proctor, attended, presented, and chaired at the 2015 ENV-Vision (Environmental Vision) Conference this week in Washington, DC. The presentation, titled Cumulative Risk Assessment of Urban Air Toxics:  A Pilot Study in San Antonio, Texas, was held on Wednesday, May 13 at 1:00 pm in Crystal Ballroom Salon B during Session 4a:  Air Toxics Health & Risk Assessment.  We hope you were able to stop by and check out her talk. read more…