HEEDS News: January 2023

Office Workers' Exposures: Hormonal Activity of Chemicals Detected with Silicone Wristbands
Feb 15
Featuring Dr. Hannah Young of Harvard University. Webinar sponsored by the EDC Strategies Partnership, of which HEEDS is a member.

A Science-Based Agenda for Health-Protective Chemical Assessments and Decisions
Feb 2
Featuring the lead authors of a series of five papers released by a group of experts convened by the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment's Science Action Network for Health and the Environment.

Risk Assessment of Micro and Nanoplastics: Regulatory insights and knowledge gaps
Feb. 7
The first in a series of three workshops sponsored by CUSP, a EU multidisciplinary team researching the health effects of micro and nanoplastics.

PFAS: Forever Chemicals in Everyday Products & Your Health
Feb. 8
Featuring Dr. Dania Valvi. Part of the Environment and Health Lunchtime Chat webinar series, sponsored by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Virtual Workshop: Bridging the Biological and Communication Sciences on Nutrients and Environmental Contaminants in Foods to Support Child Development
Feb. 9-10
Sponsored by the NIH and the FDA.

CHE Café: What's Next in Environmental Health?
Feb. 10
Featuring a conversation between Dr. Linda Birnbaum and Dr. Ami Zota. Sponsored by the Collaborative for Health and Environment (CHE).

Virtual Workshop: Integrating Environmental Data with Other Omics for Cancer Epidemiology
Feb. 14-15
Sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI)/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Cancer and the Environment Working Group.

Environmental Justice and the Built Environment: Protecting Children and Families
Feb. 23
Sponsored by CHE.

Duke Integrated Toxicology & Environmental Health Program Spring 2023 Seminar Series
Thursdays through Apr. 27, noon EST
In person and online.

Plastic Health Summit 2023
May 11
Brussels, Belgium
Abstracts are due Mar. 5.

New approach methodologies workshop: Towards an animal free regulatory system for industrial chemicals
May 31 - June 1
Helsinki, Finland
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) will invite 150 people to join this meeting; express your interest in attending by Feb 28.

35th Annual Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology
Sept. 17-21
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
The theme is, “Connecting the East and the West, One Health in One Planet.”
Symposia are due Feb. 20, and abstracts are due Mar. 13.

Big Federal Cosmetic Policy Reform Enacted
The passage of the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulations Act of 2022 makes many constructive changes to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act, but much work remains. By the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.

EPA Proposes to Add Environmental Justice, Climate Change, and PFAS to National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives
Comments are due Mar. 13.

Nine hazardous chemicals added to REACH’s blacklist: BPS, melamine, isobutylparaben, PFHpA, and more
Blog by the Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL). Also see HEAL's new REACH Campaign page.

Obesogens: assessing the evidence linking chemicals in food to obesity
New report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

SHARP Training: Skills for Health And Research Professionals
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health presents hybrid or in-person trainings on dozens of topics. Summer training scholarship applications are due Mar. 7.

Children's Environmental Health: Proceedings of a Workshop
A new report by the National Academies.

Resources for Clinicians on PFAS
New web resource from the PFAS Exchange.

PFAS Analytic Tools
The EPA released a new interactive webpage on PFAS testing at locations around the U.S.

Watch: Pete Myers and Tyrone Hayes reflect on tremendous progress in the environmental health field
They spoke at the Collaborative for Health and Environment's 20th Anniversary event. Via Environmental Health News.

Endocrine Disruptors - Common Chemicals That Severely Alter Your Hormones - Dr. Shanna Swan
Watch Dr. Shanna Swan discuss EDCs on After Skool (over 847K views!).

WSU Professor Patricia Hunt awarded prestigious prize in developmental biology
Patricia Hunt, a Regents professor in Washington State University’s School of Molecular Biosciences, was awarded the 2022 Richard B. Johnston Jr. M.D. Prize in Developmental Biology, sponsored by the March of Dimes. Dr. Hunt is also a co-director of the ECHO course listed above. Congratulations to Pat!

A Science-Based Agenda for Health-Protective Chemical Assessments and Decisions
In a series of 5 papers published in a supplement of Environmental Health, an interdisciplinary group of experts, convened by the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment's Science Action Network for Health and the Environment, released a consensus statement and recommendations for EPA to ensure that decisions about chemicals are based on the most up-to-date science to better protect health.
See related webinar listed above, and related blogs:

Scientists recommend changes to chemical regulatory process
The weak link: gaps in exposure assessments, by Dr. Laura Vandenberg.
With chemicals that can harm you, one size does not fit all, by Dr. Julia Varshavsky
Are “safe” exposure levels really “safe”?, by Greylin Nielsen, Dr. Wendy Heiger-Bernays, and Dr. Roberta White.

Optimizing Chemicals Management in the United States and Canada through the Essential-Use Approach
Bǎlan SA, Andrews DQ, Blum A, Diamond ML, Fernández SR, Harriman E, Lindstrom AB, Reade A, Richter L, Sutton R, Wang Z, Kwiatkowski CF. Environ Sci Technol. 2023 Jan 19.
See related op-ed in The Hill, How the US can radically improve chemical safety, by Carol Kwiatkowski.

Code OB: We need urgent action on climate change and toxic chemicals
Woodruff TJ, Charlesworth A, Zlatnik MG, Pandipati S, DeNicola N, Latif I. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2023 Feb;160(2):363-365.
Part of a special issue on climate change and women's health in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

PFAS Are Everywhere!
First indication of perfluoroalkyl substances in human serum of Papua New Guinea population.
Nguyen HTM, Nilsson S, Mueller AAR, Toms LM, Kennedy C, Langguth D, Hobson P, Mueller JF. Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jan 20:161749.

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