National Academies Press: OpenBook

Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals (2006)

Chapter: Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants

« Previous: 7 Research Agenda
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×

Appendix A
Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants

Thomas A. Burke (Chair) is professor and associate chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, with joint appointments in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the School of Medicine’s Department of Oncology. He is also founding codirector of the university’s Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute. At Johns Hopkins, he was principal investigator for the Pew Environmental Health Commission; this research developed the recommendations for the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network. He received his PhD in epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania and his MPH from the University of Texas. Before joining the university, Dr. Burke was deputy commissioner of health for the state of New Jersey and director of science and research for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. In New Jersey, he directed initiatives that influenced the development of national programs, such as Superfund, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Toxics Release Inventory. His research interests include environmental epidemiology and surveillance, the evaluation of community exposures to environmental pollutants, the assessment and communication of environmental risks, and the application of epidemiology and health risk assessment to public policy. Dr. Burke was the inaugural chair of the advisory board to the director of the CDC National Center for Environmental Health and is a member of the National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He has served on several other National Research Council committees; he was a

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×

member of the Committee on the Toxicological Effects of Methyl Mercury and chair of the Committee on Toxicants and Pathogens in Biosolids Applied to Land. In 2003, he was designated a lifetime national associate of the National Academies


Mark Cullen is professor of medicine and public health at Yale University School of Medicine. His research interests are in occupational and environmental medicine, including isocyanate exposure in automobile-shop workers, lung cancer in people exposed to asbestos, and lead toxicity in workers. He has published several textbooks, including Clinical Occupational Medicine and Textbook of Clinical Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Dr. Cullen received his MD from Yale University and did his residency in internal medicine. He is a member of the DuPont Epidemiology Review Board, a member of the MacArthur Foundation Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health, and a corporate medical director for the Aluminum Company of America. Dr. Cullen is a member of the Institute of Medicine and served as a member of its Board on Health Sciences.


George Eadon is director of the Division of Environmental Disease Prevention of the New York State Department of Health and associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the State University of New York, Albany. He is actively engaged in a number of biomonitoring studies being conducted by the state of New York. Dr. Eadon has served as assistant and associate professor of chemistry and later as chairman of the Department of Environmental Health Science and Toxicology at the State University of New York, Albany. Dr. Eadon received his PhD in chemistry from Stanford University. He serves on the advisory board of New York’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Grant.


Peter Farmer is an honorary professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine and a joint director of the Cancer Biomarkers and Prevention Group at the University of Leicester, UK. His research group studies the molecular action of carcinogenic and other toxic chemicals and develops biomarkers of exposure and effects. The group is involved in several international collaborations aimed at developing methods for monitoring human exposure to environmental and occupational genotoxic chemicals. One of the major focuses of Dr. Farmer’s research is the in vivo interaction (adduct formation) of environmental chemicals, or their active metabolites, with protein and DNA. He received his DPhil in chemistry from Oxford University. He is the chairman of the Committee on Mutagenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products, and the Environment of the UK Department of Health. He is also a member of the Health Effects Institute Research Committee.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×

Gary Ginsberg is a senior toxicologist in the Division of Environmental Epidemiology of the Connecticut Department of Public Health. In addition, he is an assistant clinical professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and an adjunct faculty member of the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Ginsberg is involved in the use of toxicology and risk-assessment principles to evaluate human exposures to chemicals in air, water, soil, food, and the workplace. He provides risk-assessment expertise to the department and other state agencies in standard-setting and site-remediation projects. He received his PhD in toxicology from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Ginsberg is a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Children’s Health Protection, which reports to the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.


Carol J. Henry serves as vice president for science and research at the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and is responsible for the management and guidance of the Long-range Research Initiative. She received her PhD in microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh. Before joining the ACC, Dr. Henry served as director of the Health and Environmental Sciences Department of the American Petroleum Institute. Earlier she completed 5 years of public service, serving as associate deputy assistant secretary for science and risk policy at the U.S. Department of Energy and as director of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment of the California Environmental Protection Agency. Before the latter appointment, she was executive director of the International Life Sciences Institute’s Risk Science Institute. A diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology, Dr. Henry is a member of the Society of Toxicology and the American College of Toxicology, of which she has been president. She served on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Toxicology Program and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Act Science Advisory Committee’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Oxygenates in Gasoline. Dr. Henry recently completed two terms as a member of the National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology and as a member of the Committee to Review EPA’s Research Grants Program. She serves on the Board of Directors of the CIIT Centers for Health Research; the Roundtable for Environmental Health, Medicine and Science of the Institute of Medicine; and the Chemical Sciences Roundtable of the National Research Council.


Nina Holland is an associate adjunct professor of genetics and toxicology and director of the biorepository at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. Her scientific interests include molecular epidemiology of children’s health, cytogenetics, and reproductive toxicology. In Dr. Holland’s Laboratory of Children’s Environmental Health, research focuses on the development and implementation of genetic and immuno-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×

logic biomarkers in children’s studies. Dr. Holland received her PhD in genetics from the Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. She served as a director of the Laboratory Cores of the Superfund Center and the Center for Children’s Environmental Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Holland is a member of the coordinating committee on the International Project on Micro-nucleus Studies in Humans. She has organized several sessions on molecular epidemiology of children’s environmental health at national and international meetings.


Gunnar Johanson is professor of occupational toxicology and risk assessment and director of the Division of Work Environment Toxicology at the Institute of Environmental Medicine of the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. His research focuses on the study of toxicokinetics of chemicals after controlled exposure of volunteers and on the development of physiologically based pharmacokinetic models. Dr. Johanson received his PhD in toxicology from the Karolinska Institutet. He is a member of the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits of the European Commission, chairman of the Nordic Expert Group for Criteria Documentation of Health Risks from Chemicals, and vice chairman of the Swedish Criteria Group for Occupational Exposure Limits. In 2001, Dr. Johanson was a recipient of the Herbert E. Stokinger Award for outstanding achievement in industrial toxicology from the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists.


Branden Johnson is a research scientist with the Bureau of Environmental Health Science and Environmental Assessment in the Division of Science, Research, and Technology of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). His research focuses on risk communication and risk perception regarding environmental hazards. He holds several adjunct and visiting professorship positions at Rutgers University, in the School of Public Health and in the Departments of Human Ecology and Geography. Before joining NJDEP, Dr. Johnson was associate professor of science, technology and society at Michigan Technological University. He was chair of the Risk Communication Specialty group, and President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Society for Risk Analysis, and is currently President of the Risk Assessment and Policy Association. Dr. Johnson received his PhD in geography from Clark University. Dr. Johnson served as a member of the National Research Council Committee on Drinking Water Contaminants.


Dorothy E. Patton is an adjunct professor at the Georgetown (University) Public Policy Institute and a consultant with the Risk Science Institute of the International Life Sciences Institute. Before retiring in July 2000, Dr.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×

Patton’s 24-year tenure with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency included positions as Director of the Office of Science Policy, Executive Director of the Science Policy Council and Executive Director of the Risk Assessment Forum. In these positions, her responsibilities included developing and implementing risk assessment policies and practices, environmental research planning and prioritization, and long-range strategic planning in line with congressional mandates. She began her EPA career as an attorney in EPA’s Office of General Counsel, where she worked on air, pesticides, and toxic substances issues. She holds a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Chicago, and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law. Her teaching experience includes an assistant professorship (biology) at York College of the City University of New York, as well as seminars and training workshops for risk assessment professionals.


Gerald van Belle holds joint appointments as professor in the Departments of Biostatistics and of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington. Dr. van Belle received his PhD in mathematical statistics from the University of Toronto. His research has focused on the use of statistics to study various environmental health issues, including exposure to pollutants in air and drinking water, and environmental risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. van Belle served as a member of the National Research Council Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology and was a member of the Committee to Review EPA’s Research Grants Program.


Claude Viau is professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Montreal; from 1994 to 2002, he served as chairman of the department. He was also senior risk management advisor of the Healthy Environment and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada from November 2004 to January 2006. Dr. Viau has conducted numerous analytic chemistry, toxicology, and biomonitoring studies. His current research focuses on biomonitoring of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure, percutaneous penetration of chemicals, and styrene neurotoxicity. He received his MSc in analytic chemistry from the University of Montreal and his PhD in industrial toxicology from the Université de Louvain (Bruxelles). Dr. Viau is a member of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists Biomonitoring Exposure Indices Committee and serves as president of the Scientific Committee on Occupational Toxicology of the International Commission on Occupational Health.


Robin Whyatt is deputy director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health and associate professor in the Department of Envi-

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×

ronmental Health Sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Whyatt’s research focuses on the effects of environmental exposures of women and children, including the developing fetus. She received her Dr.P.H. from the Mailman School of Public Health. Before going to Columbia University, she was a senior staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Dr. Whyatt has published widely on the application of biologic markers to studies of environmental risks in infants and children and on the effects of environmental exposures during fetal development. She is a member of the Science Advisory Board of the Cincinnati Children’s Environmental Health Center and is cochair of the Chemical Exposure Workgroup of the National Children’s Study.


Raymond Yang is professor of toxicology and cancer biology at the Colorado State University. Dr. Yang’s research focuses on the toxicology of chemical mixtures and biologically based computer modeling. He received his PhD in toxicology and entomology from the North Carolina State University. Dr. Yang is the editor or coeditor of two books: Toxicology of Chemical Mixtures: Cases Studies, Mechanisms, and Novel Approaches and Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetics: Science and Applications. Dr. Yang serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and serves on the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Environmental Technology Directorate Review Committee. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Interactions of Drugs, Biologics, and Chemicals in Deployed U.S. Military Forces and a member of the National Research Council Subcommittee on Mixtures.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×
Page 257
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×
Page 258
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×
Page 259
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×
Page 260
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×
Page 261
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographic Information on the Committee on Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Toxicants." National Research Council. 2006. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11700.
×
Page 262
Next: Appendix B Additional Case Studies Used to Exemplify Interpretative Approaches Described in Chapter 5 »
Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $75.00 Buy Ebook | $59.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

Biomonitoring—a method for measuring amounts of toxic chemicals in human tissues—is a valuable tool for studying potentially harmful environmental chemicals. Biomonitoring data have been used to confirm exposures to chemicals and validate public health policies. For example, population biomonitoring data showing high blood lead concentrations resulted in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) regulatory reduction of lead in gasoline; biomonitoring data confirmed a resultant drop in blood lead concentrations. Despite recent advances, the science needed to understand the implications of the biomonitoring data for human health is still in its nascent stages. Use of the data also raises communication and ethical challenges. In response to a congressional request, EPA asked the National Research Council to address those challenges in an independent study. Human Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals provides a framework for improving the use of biomonitoring data including developing and using biomarkers (measures of exposure), research to improve the interpretation of data, ways to communicate findings to the public, and a review of ethical issues.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!