At this year’s Society of Toxicology (SOT) annual meeting Gradient’s “A Rubric for Identifying Potentially Genotoxic Polycyclic Amines and Derivation of a Chemical Class-Specific TTC” was awarded the Best Poster Award in the Medical Device and Combination Product Specialty.

Authors:
Rachel Y. Chang, Ph.D.
Alexander Alverson
Joel M. Cohen, Sc.D., DABT

Abstract:
“A Rubric for Identifying Potentially Genotoxic Polycyclic Amines and Derivation of a Chemical Class-Specific TTC”

Presentation:
Session: Medical Devices
03/28/22 @ 9:00 am-10:45 am

Link to SOT’s Medical Device and Combination Product Specialty Section awards

Link to Gradient’s presence at SOT 2022

Gradient’s Dr. Barbara D. Beck was quoted in an InsideEPA.com article entitled, “Science Advisors Praise EPA’s Cumulative Analysis Goals But Doubt Ability” published on March 4, 2022.

The above article continues discussions and follows a previous white paper on the topic.  The Science Advisory Board (SAB), of which Dr. Beck is a member, and EPA have had ongoing consultation on cumulative impacts analysis research gaps and needs.  US EPA Administrator Michael Regan prioritized cumulative impacts analysis “as a way to try to advance Environmental Justice (EJ) in decision making at EPA.”  The article contains details of the SAB members’ views on ways in which the agency “might begin to use cumulative impacts analysis in the near term and also for recommendations to address the major scientific and research gaps EPA will have to overcome in order to integrate cumulative impacts into its work.”

See the article:  https://insideepa.com/daily-news/science-advisors-praise-epa-s-cumulative-analysis-goals-doubt-ability?s=na

On his first day as the US EPA Administrator, Michael S. Regan committed the Agency to prioritizing environmental justice (EJ).

Topics: 

Environmental Justice, Environmental Permitting,

Air Quality, Water, Risk Assessment 

NEWS ALERT

Recent US EPA Actions Related to Environmental Justice

On his first day as the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Administrator, Michael S. Regan committed the Agency to prioritizing environmental justice (EJ). Administrator Regan has directed the Agency to bring new attention to economic and racial inequities as viewed through the lens of US EPA policies. Given Administrator Regan’s pronouncement and President Biden’s focus on these issues, EJ is becoming increasingly integrated into environmental permitting for operations or siting, facility compliance, air monitoring, risk assessments, and federal environmental rulemaking. Significant resources at both the federal and state levels have been dedicated to developing tools that identify and respond to the concerns of communities potentially overburdened by environmental pollution issues. Companies are seeing this message and are eager to understand their roles in supporting this important vision.

Administrator Regan’s recent “Journey to Justice” tour provided further clarity on US EPA’s proposed actions related to inspections, air quality, and enforcement. Some of these actions include:

  • Launch a “Pollution Accountability Team” in Spring 2022 to conduct more air pollution monitoring and unannounced inspections of regulated facilities.
  • Use a Dallas, Texas-based plane equipped with air monitoring sensors to monitor areas suspected of failing to comply with environmental regulations.
  • Purchase additional mobile air monitoring equipment to monitor fenceline and ground-level air quality conditions.
  • Focus specifically on overburdened communities, primarily in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, with future expansion to other areas of the US.

Companies are using the US EPA actions identified in the tour to better scope how they might apply Administrator Regan’s EJ vision locally. Gradient is well positioned to help organizations identify and address EJ and facility-related issues. Specific areas of Gradient’s expertise relevant to EJ issues include:

  • design of air sampling programs, modeling of ambient air concentrations, and assessment of air pollution impacts;
  • application of EJ-related tools (EJSCREEN, RSEI);
  • baseline community health assessment (including sociodemographic factors);
  • water quality and water distribution system analysis;
  • EJ considerations in remedy selection;
  • risk communication; and
  • cumulative risk assessment (including evaluation of nonchemical stressors).

Caption: US EPA’s EJSCREEN Map of Particulate Matter (PM2.5) EJ Indexes (national percentiles) for Jackson, Mississippi

If you have questions about actions your organization might take to understand and prepare for the federal or state EJ initiatives, please contact Gradient:

 

Ari S. Lewis
Principal 
[email protected]

 

Julie Lemay
Senior Environmental Health Scientist
[email protected]

About Gradient | News | Environmental Sciences

Science and Strategies for Health and the Environment

 www.gradientcorp.com

Gradient, One Beacon Street, 17th floor, Boston, MA, 02108, 617-395-5000

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Join our presenters at the SOT 61st Annual Meeting and ToxExpo in March – abstracts and poster details inside!

SOT_LI ad_2022

The 2022 Annual Meeting of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) will take place March 27-31 in San Diego, California. Click the links below to see the presentation abstracts.

Gradient’s 2022 SOT Poster Presentations: 

“Read-Across Assessments for Data-Poor Medical Device Extractables: Best Practices and Potential Pitfalls
Alexander Alverson, Joel M. Cohen
Session: Medical Devices
03/28/22 @ 9:00 am-10:45 am

“Review of Chemical Category Assessment Strategies for Medical Device Extractables”
Ian G. Hadley, Rachel Chang, Joel M. Cohen
Session: Medical Devices
03/28/22 @ 9:00 am-10:45 am

 

“Expert Review of Cramer Classification Predictions for Medical Device Extractables”
Pranav Mashankar, Ian G. Hadley, Rachel Chang, Joel M. Cohen
Session: Medical Devices
03/28/22 @ 9:00 am-10:45 am

“A Rubric for Identifying Potentially Genotoxic Polycyclic Amines and Derivation of a Chemical Class-Specific TTC”

Rachel Chang, Alexander Alverson,
Joel M. Cohen
Session: Medical Devices
03/28/22 @ 9:00 am-10:45 am

“A Comparison of Soil Ingestion Rates in Developed and Developing Countries: Implications for Risk Assessment”
Steven R. Boomhower, Barbara Beck,
Jean Zhou
Session: Exposure Assessment/Biomonitoring
03/29/22 @ 9:00 am-10:45 am

“Systematic Review of Perchloroethylene and Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma”
Rebecca Ticknor, Julie Goodman, Jean Zhou
Session: Risk Assessment III
03/29/22 @ 2:30 pm-4:15 pm


“Establishing Safe Harbor Levels for Trace Proposition 65 Contaminants: Dichloroacetic Acid, Methyl Chloride and Propylene Oxide”
Brittany Baisch, Rachel Chang, Azita K. Cuevas, Michael K. Peterson
Session: Late Breaking-3
03/31/22 @ 8:30 am-11:30 am

“Establishing Safe Harbor Levels for Trace Proposition 65 Fragrance Ingredients: Estragole, Methyleugenol and Pulegone”
Azita K. Cuevas, Brittany Baisch, Rachel Chang, Michael K. Peterson
Session: Late Breaking-3
03/31/22 @ 8:30 am-11:30 am

Gradient, One Beacon Street, 17th floor, Boston, MA, 02108, 617-395-5000

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Dr. Amy Dale joined the Advisory Board for the Stone Living Lab, a coastal resiliency/climate change research partnership between the City of Boston, UMass Boston, Boston Harbor Now, the National Parks of Boston, Massachusetts Dept. of Conservation & Recreation, and the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation.

Kristina Chu was appointed to the Green New Deal Oversight Board for the City of Seattle.

Dr. Andrew Yeh and Ms. Jiaru Zhang have been certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.

California’s State Water Board announced last week that it has developed new standard methods for analyzing microplastics in drinking water.

Topics: 

Emerging Contaminants, Microplastics,
Data Quality, Analytical Methods

NEWS ALERT

California Develops Analytical Testing Methods for Microplastics in Drinking Water

California’s State Water Board announced last week that it has developed new standard methods for analyzing microplastics in drinking water, the world’s first regulatory standard methods in this medium. The science of measuring microplastics in environmental samples and assessing potential risks to human health and the environment is relatively new. As consumer and regulatory concerns have grown, California has been at the forefront of this issue, having recently developed a regulatory definition of microplastics and guidance for monitoring these materials in drinking water. The new analytical procedures released last week are the first proposed methods to standardize microplastics measurements in environmental samples, and use Raman and infrared spectroscopy to evaluate microplastics in drinking water. These methods will enable the California Water Board to begin collecting consistent, standardized data about the amount and types of microplastics in drinking water sources. Eventually, those data can be used to provide insight regarding exposures and potential risks from microplastics in drinking water.

Gradient is tracking the evolving science and regulatory concerns related to microplastics. Gradient’s expertise related to microplastics and other emerging contaminants includes:

  • more than 20 years of experience assessing risks to human health and the environment for a range of chemicals, including emerging contaminants;
  • experience developing and assessing standard methods for analyzing existing and emerging contaminants in environmental samples; and
  • recognized technical experts in the fields of exposure assessment, human health and marine environmental toxicology, spatial data analysis, and environmental fate and transport.

If you have any questions about Gradient’s capabilities related to microplastics, please visit our website or contact:

Kim Reynolds Reid

Principal Scientist

Matthew Tymchak, M.S.

Senior Hydrologist

Tim Verslycke, Ph.D.

Principal

Andrew Yeh, Ph.D., DABT

Senior Toxicologist

About Gradient | News | Environmental Sciences Services

Science and Strategies for Health and the Environment

 www.gradientcorp.com

Gradient, One Beacon Street, 17th floor, Boston, MA, 02108, 617-395-5000

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Gradient contributed scientific analyses in the first interstate water dispute focused solely on groundwater tried before the Supreme Court.

Topics: 

Water Rights, Water Resources,
Hydrogeology, Groundwater Modeling, Aquifer

NEWS ALERT

MS v. TN Supreme Court Water Rights Case Receives Unanimous Ruling

Gradient contributed scientific analyses in the first interstate water dispute focused solely on groundwater tried before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court recently ruled on a decade-plus-long water rights dispute between Mississippi and Tennessee. In a unanimous decision, the Court rejected Mississippi’s claims that it owns groundwater beneath its state borders and that pumping by Tennessee resulted in the wrongful taking of Mississippi’s groundwater. In the first Supreme Court ruling focused solely on groundwater, the Court declared that the doctrine of equitable apportionment applies to groundwater flowing in interstate aquifers. The aquifer at issue was the Middle Claiborne, which is a major source of water for Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

To address Mississippi’s claims in the case, Gradient evaluated the vast literature on the Mississippi Embayment aquifer system and characterized regional aquifer behavior using a numerical groundwater model developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) that encompassed the 78,000-square-mile aquifer system. We used the model to evaluate pre-development groundwater flow patterns and groundwater-surface water interconnectedness.

Specific Gradient analyses in this matter included:

  • Evaluating the aquifer extent, characteristics, and historical definition;
  • Modeling pre-development groundwater flow patterns, groundwater-surface water interactions, and sources of recharge;
  • Assessing anthropogenic impacts to the aquifer using measured data and mathematical models; and
  • Delivering expert testimony in a hearing before the Special Master to the Supreme Court for this case.

Gradient has provided scientific support for two recent original-jurisdiction water rights actions tried before the Supreme Court. These cases have required multidisciplinary hydrologic expertise.

If you have any questions about Gradient’s capabilities, please visit our website or contact:

About Gradient | News | Water Resources Services

Science and Strategies for Health and the Environment

 www.gradientcorp.com

Gradient, One Beacon Street, 17th floor, Boston, MA, 02108, 617-395-5000

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Charlotte Marsh presenting at Material Health Open Innovation Symposium November 16. “Looking Beyond the CAS Number: Considering Form Specificity in Hazard Assessment of Metals,” will be presented from 1:40- 2:20 EST on 11/16.   This work is one of four recipients of the 2021 Material Health Open Innovation Presentation Award.
Charlotte Marsh, Kim Reynolds Reid