April 1, 2015
Toxics Use Reduction Institute Science Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
April 1, 2015
Massachusetts DEP, Conference Room A
12:30 PM
Members present: Dave Williams (Chair), Larry Boise (Vice-Chair), Christine Rioux, Robin Dodson, Kenneth Weinberg, Hilary Hackbart
Others present: Mary Butow (TURI), Liz Harriman (TURI), Heather Tenney (TURI), Rick Reibstein (OTA), Trisha McCarthy (Coyne PC for ACC), John Raschko (OTA), Carol Rowan-West (DEP), Susan Peck (DEP), Sean Moynihan (MCTA), Tsedash Zewdie (DEP), Margaret Gorman (ACC), Jennifer Foreman (Exxon-Mobil Biomedical Sciences for ACC)
Members not present: Igor Linkov, Amy Cannon
Welcome and Introductions
Program Updates
• The Program is recognizing 25th Anniversary TURA leaders this Spring in a series of events at the facilities. Events are on-going throughout April and May.
• The Spring TURA Continuing Education Conference will be held, April 9, in Bedford, MA.
• Also on April 9 is a Greener Materials Art Event in Lowell, sponsored by the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• The Greener Materials Research Symposium will be held on May 19th in Lowell at the University. This event seeks, in part, to match academic research with industry needs.
• The updated LHS/HHS fact sheet was distributed, which includes the 4 recently designated HHS.
Approve January Meeting Minutes
In a section where visitor was indicated as ‘they’ said, it was noted to correct to either ‘he/she’ said.
Vote: Approved (as amended): 6 in favor.
CERCLA Categories: Phthalate esters - Finalize Summary for DEP
Program staff reviewed the current status of the summary document and clarified that it is intended for DEP, yet will be available for public use. Some items were corrected directly in the text of the document, other items were further discussed by the Board, including:
• How shall the Board define ‘review’ with regard to the literature? There was discussion about the extent to which the Board reviewed the many studies and reports, whether or not the review was systematic in nature, and whether and when biases and other reliability issues were considered.
• A visitor expressed concern about the brevity of the statements in the carbon chain length by health effect table, and whether all study results could be better reflected in the table. It was noted that the table in question was designed as a visual tool to demonstrate that effects were seen across the broad spectrum of carbon chain lengths. It was not designed to be exhaustive. This will be noted at the bottom of the table moving forward.
DEP staff reviewed the phthalate ester category history and reiterated the charge to the SAB regarding the Phthalate Ester work: The category is already on the list; what does the toxicology suggest in terms of defining which substances should be included in TURA reporting and planning? Other ways of posing the question: Is there a category of phthalates where evidence supports not including them in the category? We know the transitional phthalates are toxic; should we be worried about the rest of the category?
DEP staff suggested formats for summarizing the data that has been reviewed, specifically in a high level table that would include: the 10 chemicals, carbon chain length designations, endpoints studied (including studies showing evidence of effect or evidence of no effect), other remarkable information about reliability pertaining to the studies. They would also like the endpoints to be explicitly defined. This table will include the studies from the appendix. Program staff will circulate the draft table to the SAB prior to the next meeting so that they can confirm the statements and indications of evidence or limited/no evidence of effect. In addition to this an Executive Summary will be drafted for the SAB to review, discuss and agree on. A visitor noted that the inclusion/exclusion criteria was different among the groups reviewing studies.
Board members will take on specific tasks in preparation for the next meeting.
• Meta-, Para-/Tere-,
• Cumulative effects,
• Low-dose effects.
The members will update the tables for these sections and provide summary statements to be included as was done for the other tables.
• Executive Summary -
This will be a brief, high-level couple of paragraphs with an overview of what the board found in their review across the whole category.
Research Process Document: Introduction
The current draft of this document which describes the resources TURI uses to gather scientific information for the SAB to consider was distributed. The Board was asked to review the document and endpoints, and provide feedback on additional resources they feel would be useful to include and any other glossary terms they would like to see defined.
Next Meeting
Date to be determined.
Handouts:
• TURI – Draft Phthalate Ester document
• TURI – Draft Research Process document
• LHS/HHS Fact Sheet