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Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene (2010)

Chapter: Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
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Appendix A
Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene

Sam Kacew (Chair) is a professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, and associate director of toxicology at the McLaughlin Centre for Population Health Risk Assessment of the University of Ottawa. His general research interests are in renal, hepatic, and pulmonary toxicology. Recent work has focused on the effects in infants of chemical contaminants in breast milk, the basis of differences between infants and children in responsiveness to chemicals, and the role of confounding factors in toxicity testing. Dr. Kacew is the recipient of several awards for his research and teaching. Most recently, he was awarded the Public Communications Award from the Society of Toxicology for his contribution to broadening public awareness of toxicologic issues through communication in books and public presentations. He is the editor-in chief of the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, editor of the Encyclopedia of Environmental Health, and North American editor of Toxicology and Environmental Chemistry. He has served on numerous scientific expert panels and committees, including service as chair of the National Research Council Committee on Iodotrifluoromethane and member of the Committees on Depleted Uranium, Flame Retardants, and Jet Propulsion Fuel 8. He received his PhD in pharmacology from the University of Ottawa.


Bruce H. Alexander is an associate professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. His research interests are in applied occupational and environmental epidemiology, epidemiologic methods, and global health. Current research includes respiratory health and community exposure to asbestos-contaminated vermiculite; mortality, cancer incidence, and respiratory health in taconite production workers; health effects of occupational exposure to fluorochemicals; health effects of ionizing radiation in the medical field; pesticide exposure assessment in farm families; and the use of biologic markers in epidemiologic research. Dr. Alexander received his MS in environmental health from Colorado State University and his PhD in epidemiology from the University of Washington.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×

Margit Bleecker is director of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Neurology in Baltimore, Maryland. Her research interests are in clinical industrial neurotoxicology and occupational neurology. She has served on several Institute of Medicine committees, including two terms on the Committee to Review the Health Effects of Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides. She received her PhD from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center and her MD from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. Dr. Bleecker is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.


Gary P. Carlson is professor of toxicology in the School of Health Sciences of Purdue University. His research interests are in examining the relationship between the metabolism of chemicals and their toxic actions, including an interest in activation and detoxification pathways in the liver and other target organs. Current research involves using a variety of techniques, ranging from in vitro assays to animal bioassays, to examine the biochemical mechanisms by which chemical agents exert their toxic and carcinogenic actions. He has served on several National Research Council committees, most recently as chair of the Subcommittee on Toxicologic Assessment of Low-Level Exposures to Chemical Warfare Agents and currently as a member of the Committee on Toxicology and the Committee on Combined Exposures to Hydrogen Cyanide and Hydrogen Monoxide in Army Operations. Dr. Carlson received his PhD in pharmacology from the University of Chicago.


Linda D. Cowan is George Lynn Cross Professor and chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Her research interests include cardiovascular-disease epidemiology and the relative importance of risk factors in American Indian men and women, neurologic disorders, and perinatal epidemiology. Her recent research includes analysis of risk-factor profiles for early-onset and late-onset coronary heart disease in American Indians, investigation of the role of environmental toxicants and congenital hearing loss, and studies in west Africa of the prevalence of and risk factors for epilepsy associated with neurocysticercosis. Dr. Cowan has served on the National Research Council Committee to Assess the Health Implications of Perchlorate Ingestion and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of the Anthrax Vaccine. She is a member of the IOM Board on the Health of Select Populations. She received her PhD in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University.


Mary E. Davis is a professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of the West Virginia University Health Sciences Center. Her research interests are in the toxicology of environmental and occupational pollutants, including water-disinfection byproducts, halogenated solvents, and arsenic. She is particularly interested in mechanisms of toxicity in the liver, kidneys, and vascular system. Dr. Davis was treasurer of the Society of Toxicology and is a former

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×

president of the society’s Allegheny-Erie Regional Chapter. She has served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board and the editorial boards of Toxicology and Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. She was a member of the National Research Council Committee on Assessing Human Health Risks of Trichloroethylene. She received her PhD in pharmacology from Michigan State University.


H. Christopher Frey is a professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering of North Carolina State University. His research interests are in energy and environmental systems, specifically the development and application of methods for quantifying variability and uncertainty and for sensitivity analysis in system models. He has also been involved in exposure and risk analysis, particularly with regard to criteria pollutants, hazardous air pollutants, and particulate matter. Dr. Frey is a former president of the Society for Risk Analysis. He received his MS in mechanical engineering and his PhD in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University.


Joseph R. Landolph, Jr. is an associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and pathology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC). He also holds an appointment as associate professor of molecular pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences in the USC School of Pharmacy. His research interests are in the molecular biology of chemical carcinogenesis induced by nickel and chromium compounds, specifically the processes of oncogene activation and tumor-suppressor gene inactivation in chemically induced neoplastic cell transformation. Other chemicals studied include carcinogenic arsenic compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Dr. Landolph has held a number of leadership positions in the Society of Toxicology; he has been vice-president, president, and councillor of the Metals Specialty Section and councillor of the Carcinogenesis Specialty Section. He has previously served as a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Human Health Strategies Review Committee and is a member of the Science and Technology Achievement Awards Committee and of the Drinking Water Committee of the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Panel. He has served as a member of the Human Health Strategies Review Subcommittee of EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors. He received his PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.


David C. McMillan is an associate professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology of the Medical University of South Carolina. His research interests are in the toxicity of drugs and environmental chemicals in erythrocytes and the liver. Current research is directed toward understanding the mechanisms underlying hemolytic anemia induced by drugs. Another line of research is aimed at understanding the role of metabolism in the carcinogenicity of trichloroethylene, specifically how known genetic variation in enzymes responsible for trichloroethylene metabolism alters the rates of production and the

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×

amounts of carcinogenic metabolites produced after exposure. Dr. McMillan received his PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and he is a diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.


M.E. (Bette) Meek is the associate director of chemical risk assessment at the McLaughlin Centre of the University of Ottawa on interchange from Health Canada, where she managed the Existing Substances Division of the Safe Environments Programme of Health Canada. Her research interests are in hazard and risk assessment of chemical contaminants in the general environment. She led the development of approaches to establishing priorities for health assessment among the 23, 000 substances on the Canadian Domestic Substances List and approaches to in-depth risk assessment of high-priority substances. That included the introduction of novel predictive methods for exposure and hazard characterization, multimedia exposure estimation, chemical-specific adjustment factors for nonneoplastic effects, measures of potency for carcinogens, and robust models of peer engagement. More recently, she has been involved in the development of weight-of-evidence frameworks for mode of action based on consideration of mechanistic data in risk assessment. Dr. Meek has served as an adviser in those and related subjects to international scientific organizations (including the World Health Organization, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the International Life Sciences Institute, and the International Labour Organization). She received her MSc in toxicology from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom and her PhD in risk-assessment sciences at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.


M. Christopher Newland is Alumni Professor in the Department of Psychology of Auburn University. His research interests include the neurobehavioral toxicity of heavy metals, specifically the neurotoxicity of methylmercury during early development and aging, and behavioral pharmacology. He has served on advisory panels for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and the National Research Council, where he has participated in reviews of the Neurotoxicology Division of the EPA Health Effects Laboratories and the neurotoxicity of elemental mercury, methylmercury, and manganese. His research has been supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute on Drug Abuse, and EPA. He was a member of the Neurotoxicology and Alcohol Scientific Review Group. Dr. Newland is past president of the Neurotoxicology Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology and past president of the Behavioral Toxicology Society. He has served on several editorial boards and is associate editor of Neurotoxicology. He received his MS and PhD in experimental psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology and had postdoctoral fellowships in environmental health sciences (now environmental medicine) at the University of Rochester.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×

Julia B. Quint a research scientist, retired as chief of the Hazard Evaluation System and Information Service, Occupational Health Branch, of the California Department of Public Health. She was involved in identifying and evaluating reproductive toxicants, carcinogens, and other workplace chemical hazards and in developing strategies to protect workers, communities, and the environment from the hazards of toxic chemicals. Dr. Quint is a member of the California Environmental Contaminant Biomonitoring Program Scientific Guidance Panel and on the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s Health Expert Advisory Committee for the Development of Permissible Exposure Limits for Airborne Contaminants in the Workplace. She received her PhD in biochemistry from the University of Southern California.


Gary L. Rosner is a professor of biostatistics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He also holds an adjunct professorship in the Department of Statistics at Rice University and is a member of the faculty of the University of Texas at Houston Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. His research interests are in population pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamic modeling, pharmacogenetics, clinical-trial design, and Bayesian methods. Dr. Rosner has developed methods for analyzing complex biomedical data, such as those arising from population-based studies of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of anticancer agents. He received his master’s in applied mathetical sciences in applied mathematical sciences from Rice University and his ScD in biostatistics from Harvard University.


Ivan Rusyn is an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and associate director of the curriculum in toxicology. His research involves applying molecular, biochemical, genetic, genomic, and computational approaches to the understanding of the mechanisms of environmental-agent-related organ injury and carcinogenesis. Recent work has focused on the molecular mechanisms of phthalate-induced carcinogenesis, mechanisms of ethanol-induced hepatic toxicity based on the latest knowledge of the genetic diversity of the mouse as a model organism, and genomic and genetic analysis of hepatic and renal toxicity of trichloroethylene to determine what genetic variants correlate with susceptibility or resistance to hepatic disease. Dr. Rusyn received his MD from the Ukrainian State Medical University in Kiev and his PhD in toxicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


Rolf Schulte-Hermann is emeritus professor of toxicology at the Medical University of Vienna. He was head of the Research Unit Chemical Safety and Cancer Prevention, and, from 1985 to 2004, director of the Institute of Cancer Research at the University of Vienna. His research interests are focused on regulation of organ growth, tumor initiation and promotion, non-genotoxic carcinogens, and role of the microenvironment in chemical carcinogenesis. Major scientific achievements include the discovery of apoptotic cell death during or-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×

gan regression and carcinogenesis and of apoptosis inhibition by tumor promoters. In 1991 he founded the Austrian Society of Toxicology and served as chairman until 2009. He is director of the Postgraduate Course in Toxicology/Chemical Safety in Vienna since 1993. He served as member of numerous national and international advisory committees. Dr. Schulte-Hermann received his PhD in pharmacy from the Free University Berlin and his MD from the University of Marburg, Germany.


Irvin R. Schultz is a toxicologist in the Marine Sciences Laboratory of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy in Sequim, Washington. He also holds an appointment as an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Biology of the University of Idaho. His research interests cover both ecologic and human health issues. Highlights of his research efforts include studies of the disposition of drinking-water disinfection byproducts in human volunteers, nonhuman primates, and rodent models; development of physiologically based toxicokinetic models to describe the chemical dosimetry and estrogenic activity of xenobiotics; the metabolism and disposition of environmental pollutants in fish, with an emphasis on allometric and interspecies scaling; and the disposition and bioavailability of inorganic and organometallic compounds in fish. Dr. Schultz received his PhD in pharmacologytoxicology from Washington State University.


Robert Snyder is associate dean for research of the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy of Rutgers University and was a professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology of Rutgers College of Pharmacy, director of the of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, director of its Division of Toxicology, and director of the Graduate Program in Toxicology. His research interests are in solvent toxicology, chemically induced bone marrow depression, hepatic toxicity, chemical carcinogenesis, and drug metabolism. He has done extensive work on benzene leukemogenesis. Dr. Snyder is a former president of the American College of Toxicology and has served on several committees of the National Research Council, most recently on the Committee for Review and Assessment of the Army Non-Stockpile Demiltarization Program: Workplace Monitoring.


Roberta F. White is a professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Health of the Boston University School of Public Health. She also is associate dean of research and holds appointments in the Department of Neurology and the Department of Psychology of the university. Her research interests are in the effects of exposures to industrial chemicals and chemical pollutants on brain function on the basis of behavioral measures and neuroimaging techniques. She has studied behavioral and imaging correlates of occupational lead exposure and environmental exposure to methylmercury, structure-function relationships revealed by visuospatial tests, solvent exposures of children and adults, and effects

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×

of prenatal pesticide exposure in farm workers in South Africa. Dr. White received her PhD in clinical psychology from Wayne State University.


Luoping Zhang is an associate adjunct professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences of the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests are in mechanisms of bone marrow toxicity caused by benzene and other toxic chemicals, application of fluorescent in situ hybridization as a biomarker in studies of childhood leukemia and other types of cancer, and application of gene-expression profiling in molecular epidemiology. She received her MS in biochemistry from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in the People's Republic of China and her PhD in biochemical toxicology from Simon Fraser University, in British Columbia, Canada.


Yiliang Zhu is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics of the University of South Florida College of Public Health and director of the college’s Center for Collaborative Research. His current research is focused on quantitative methods in health risk assessment, including physiologically based pharmacokinetic models, dose-response modeling, benchmark-dose methods, and uncertainty quantification. He also conducts research in disease surveillance, health-outcome evaluation, and health-care access and use in developing countries. Dr. Zhu was a member of the National Research Council Committee on EPA’s Exposure and Human Health Assessment of Dioxin and Related Compounds. He received his MS in statistics from Queen’s University and his PhD in statistics from the University of Toronto.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×
Page 138
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×
Page 139
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×
Page 140
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×
Page 141
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×
Page 142
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Biographic Information on the Committee on Tetrachloroethylene." National Research Council. 2010. Review of the Environmental Protection Agency's Draft IRIS Assessment of Tetrachloroethylene. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12863.
×
Page 143
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Tetrachloroethylene is a volatile, chlorinated organic hydrocarbon that is widely used as a solvent in the dry-cleaning and textile-processing industries and as an agent for degreasing metal parts. It is an environmental contaminant that has been detected in the air, groundwater, surface waters, and soil. In June 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its draft Toxicological Review of Tetrachloroethylene (Perchloroethylene) (CAS No. 127-18-4) in Support of Summary Information on the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). The draft IRIS assessment provides quantitative estimates of cancer and noncancer effects of exposure to tetrachloreothylene, which will be used to establish airquality and water-quality standards to protect public health and to set cleanup standards for hazardous waste sites.

At the request of EPA, the National Research Council conducted an independent scientific review of the draft IRIS assessment of tetrachloroethylene from toxicologic, epidemiologic, and human clinical perspectives. The resulting book evaluates the adequacy of the EPA assessment, the data and methods used for deriving the noncancer values for inhalation and oral exposures and the oral and inhalation cancer unit risks posed by tetrachloroethylene; evaluates whether the key studies underlying the draft IRIS assessment are of requisite quality, reliability, and relevance to support the derivation of the reference values and cancer risks; evaluates whether the uncertainties in EPA's risk assessment were adequately described and, where possible, quantified; and identifies research that could reduce the uncertainty in the current understanding of human health effects associated with tetrachloroethylene exposure.

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