Author Archives: ToxStrategies

Austin, TX

Environmental Standards, Inc. and ToxStrategies, Inc. are pleased to announce the beginning of a strategic alliance between the two environmental consulting firms. After working side by side with each other on numerous high-profile environmental projects throughout the years, the two companies have joined sales and marketing forces to offer their focused professional services to clients and prospects. Clients will benefit greatly from the “one-stop-shop” scientific consulting as Environmental Standards and ToxStrategies work together to offer solutions to address the scientific, technical, and regulatory challenges confronting our clients.

“We have the common interest of ensuring our clients receive the “best-in-class” of our respective services,” said Rock Vitale, CEO of Environmental Standards.

“Our plans for increased sharing of technical insight and professional knowledge between ToxStrategies’ 20-plus toxicologists and engineers and the 100-plus chemists, geoscientists, and information technologies professionals of Environmental Standards will strengthen the value-proposition we have for our clients,” commented Mark Harris, President of ToxStrategies.

Environmental Standards’ core services are environmental chemistry quality assurance, consulting geosciences and site remediation, and information technologies/environmental data management buy xenical online. ToxStrategies specializes in analyses of toxicological and epidemiological data, human health risk assessment, assistance with REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical Substances) compliance, computational analyses and modeling, exposure assessment, food and supplement safety, product safety, and scientific and strategic expertise in the nonclinical safety assessment of pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals.

About Environmental Standards, Inc.
Environmental Standards was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The company has regional offices in Charlottesville, Virginia; Kingston, Tennessee; and Houston, Texas. The Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies has listed Environmental Standards from 2007 to 2011. Environmental Standards employs over 100 full-time professionals.

For more information about Environmental Standards, contact Kevin Renninger, Director of Business Development/Principal, at 610.935.5577 or at krenninger@envstd.com or visit their website at www.envstd.com.

About ToxStrategies, Inc.
ToxStrategies was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company has regional offices in Austin, Texas; Bend, Oregon; Cincinnati, Ohio area; Orange County, California; San Francisco Bay, California area; St. Helena Island, South Carolina; and Tallahassee, Florida. ToxStrategies employs over 20 full-time professionals.

For more information about ToxStrategies contact Dr. Mark Harris, President and Principal Health Scientist, at 281-712-2062 or at mharris@toxstrategies.com or visit their website at www.toxstrategies.com.

Tallahassee, FL

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Robert James and Dr. Janice Britt have joined ToxStrategies, Inc., and will open a ToxStrategies office in Tallahassee, Florida.

Dr. James, a Senior Principal, has more than 35 years of experience in basic human and animal toxicological research and environmental consulting. He has worked with the departments of pharmacology, toxicology, and medicine at the University of Utah, Vanderbilt University, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Arkansas for Medical Science, University of Florida, Florida State University, and Medical College of Wisconsin. His basic and applied research has resulted in 75 scientific publications and he is an editor of a toxicology textbook.

In addition to his academic career, Dr. James has served as a consulting environmental toxicologist since 1979. He has provided toxicological expertise, safety/risk assessment or staff training to Fortune 500 companies, state environmental and public health departments, and various federal agencies. As a toxicological consultant he has authored hundreds of scientific evaluations in the areas of: exposure-pathway and site-specific risk assessments, safety/risk evaluations for chemicals present in soil, water, air, foods and medicines; attached to indoor and outdoor surfaces; and in consumer products or construction materials. The chemicals of potential concern included, but are not limited to: heavy metals, radionuclides, industrially important chemicals and components of commercial products, petroleum products, organic solvents (BTEX, formaldehyde), chlorinated solvents, pesticides/fumigants, pharmaceuticals, food chemicals (e.g., acrylamide, diacetyl), and environmentally persistent chemicals (e.g., brominated ethers, PFOA, PCBs, PCDD/Fs).

Dr. James’ experience in occupational and environmental exposures of consumer/commercial products, drugs, and industrial chemicals ultimately has led to legal work both as a consultant and expert witness. He has worked on a variety of legal issues including site clean-up apportionment; in limine, Lone Pine, Kelly-Frye, and Daubert motions; issues of general and specific causation; and cases involving class certification, product safety, dose-reconstruction, liability, and toxic tort remedies such as medical surveillance.

Dr. Janice Britt, a Senior Managing Scientist, has over 20 years experience as a toxicologist with extensive experience evaluating the potential human health impact of exposure to chemicals as well as experience in conducting risk assessments. She has conducted in-depth critical analyses of the toxicological literature for numerous chemicals, developed briefing books on particular scientific issues, written toxicological reviews and profiles, performed site-specific risk assessments, assisted in writing Daubert and Lone Pine motions, and evaluated the appropriateness of specific regulatory toxicity criteria (e.g., reference doses, cancer slope factors) and occupational exposure guidelines (e.g., ACGIH TLVs, OSHA PELs). Dr. Britt has evaluated a wide variety of compounds, including chlorinated solvents, BTEX, insecticides, herbicides, heavy metals, PCBs, perchlorate, PFOA, pharmaceuticals, and food additives.

Examples of recently completed projects by Dr. Britt include an evidence-based evaluation of the irritancy effects of formaldehyde. As part of this project, she conducted a comprehensive review of the toxicity of formaldehyde and background exposures to formaldehyde by humans. Dr. Britt recently completed an evidence-based review on the occupation of painting as it relates to leukemia, particularly acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). As part of this review, she evaluated the background incidence and risk factors for AML. She is currently working on an evidence-based analysis of benzene and multiple myeloma.

To read more about Dr. James and Dr. Britt, and get their contact information, please visit their company web pages.

San Francisco, CA

ToxStrategies’ scientists will be presenting short papers across mulitple sessions at the Society of Toxicology’s 51st Annual Meeting, from March 11-15, 2012, in San Francisco, CA. We are also excited to announce that ToxStrategies will be exhibiting at the ToxExpo. Please visit us in Booth #938 to learn more about our services and meet members of our staff. Click here for a complete list of our SOT 2012 presentations.

Cincinnati Area, Ohio

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Candace Doepker has joined ToxStrategies, Inc., as the Food & Product Safety Practice Leader, and will be based in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. She was trained in the field of cytogenetic toxicology and has 16 years experience providing toxicological and scientific issues management support for many different multi-billion dollar food, health, beauty and oral care brands. Relevant to the food industry, Dr. Doepker has spent the last 6 years helping to ensure consumer safety, worker safety and general product stewardship in all of the following categories: coffee, snack foods, jams, jellies, baking mixes, juices, peanut butter, flavors and oils. Recently, she has developed a strong working knowledge of the Food Safety Modernization Act and is experienced in facilitating discussions with multi-disciplinary teams to prepare for its implementation. Additionally, she has helped to evaluate risk and guide the strategic direction of companies involved with topics such as actives in drug products, caffeine, Proposition 65 regulations, heat formed toxicants, nuisance dusts, workplace allergens and carbon monoxide. In all of these topic areas she gained significant experience in taking complex technical documents and issues and simplifying them in easy to understand language.

Dr. Doepker is recognized in the food industry for her strong working knowledge of diacetyl and workplace flavor safety. Dr. Doepker has served multiple years as the Chairwoman of the Caffeine and Food Ingredients committee at the International Food Information Council, as well as serving on the Council’s Board of Directors. She has been on the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Coffee Association for 5 years and has been an active member of both the Grocery Manufacturers Association and International Life Science Institute’s science and regulatory committees.

To read more about Dr. Doepker, or to obtain her new contact information, please click here.

San Francisco Bay Area, California

We are pleased to announce that Mr. Gregory P. Brorby has joined ToxStrategies, Inc., as a Senior Managing Scientist. Mr. Brorby will be based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and greatly enhances our exposure assessment capabilities. He is a board-certified toxicologist with more than 25 years of experience in the fields of human health risk assessment, exposure simulation and dose reconstruction, and toxicology. Mr. Brorby has directed or participated in studies to estimate exposure to chemicals such as lead and phthalates from use of consumer products, particularly with regard to potential exposure via incidental hand-to-mouth contact, to assess compliance with CPSC, FDA, and California Proposition 65 requirements. He has also directed or participated in studies to reconstruct historic exposures to chemicals, including asbestos, in occupational settings. Mr. Brorby also conducts independent review of risk assessment-related work performed by others, and has significant experience communicating complicated technical information to a non-technical audience.

To read more about Mr. Brorby, or to obtain his new contact information, please click here.

Brussels, Belgium

ToxStrategies scientists will travel to Brussels, Belgium, this summer to present several short papers at the 31st International Symposium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants – Dioxin 2011.

Diliberto, J.J., Sirinek, L., Burkhalter, B., Wikoff, D.S., Hixon, G., Becker, J., Patterson, D.G., Turner, W., Tachovsky, J.A., Birnbaum, L.S., Haws, L.C. Endometriosis in a cohort of women living in the Kanawha River Valley in West Virginia: Blood levels of non-dioxin-like PCBs and relationship with BMI and age.

Haws, L.C., DeVito, M.J., Walker, N.J., Harris, M.A., Tachovsky, J.A., Birnbaum, L.S., Farland, W.H., Wikoff, D.S.Development of a consensus-based weighting framework for evaluating estimates of relative potency for dioxin-like compounds that includes consideration of data from human cells.

Haws, L.C., Fitzgerald, L., Burkhalter, B., Harris, M., Wikoff, D.S. Assessment of the US EPA’s proposed toxicological values for TCDD for regulation of dioxin-like compounds in foods: bridging the science divide in a global market.

Rowlands, J.C., Urban, J., Wikoff, D.S., Budinsky, R. The presence and estimated functional effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms at the AIP, ARNT, HSP90AA1, AND HSP90AB1 loci in the human population.

Thomas, R.S., Rowlands, J.C., Budinsky, R.A., Thompson, C.M., Urban, J.D., Dombkowski, A. Genomic approaches for relative potency assessment.

Wikoff, D.S., Thompson, C., Walker, N., DeVito, M., Harris, M., Birnbaum, L. Haws, L. Derivation of relative potency estimates using benchmark dose modeling: a case study with TCDF.

For a list of previous conference presentations, please see our Abstracts and Presentations.

Austin, TX

ToxStrategies Principal Health Scientist, Dr, Laurie Haws was invited to speak at the Air Quality 2010 conference, hosted by the University of Texas School of Law, on November 19, 2010. Dr. Haws delivered her presentation titled “Biomonitoring – A Tool for Assessing Community Exposures to Air Toxics”, to an audience that included attorneys, state and federal government representatives, and other environmental professionals. The full-day program was designed to help attorneys understand and work effectively with TCEQ, as well as provide a foundation for understanding pending EPA air quality programs.

San Antonio, Texas

Drs. Laurie Haws and Daniele Staskal to Chair the 30th International Symposium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants (Dioxin 2010) to be held in San Antonio TX in September of 2010.