News from the US EPA Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program
10:00 am US Eastern Time
Slides & Resources
Speaker presentation slides:
Dr. Cowles and Dr. Dix: News from the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program
Additional resources of interest:
US EPA Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program - Visit the website
EPA EDSP List 1 Weight of Evidence documents
Society of Tox. Pathologists recommendations, published online in Toxicologic Pathology
Analysis of EPA’s endocrine screening battery and recommendations for further review, August 2015
A variety of chemicals have been found to disrupt the endocrine systems of animals in laboratory studies, and epidemiological studies provide evidence of similar effects in humans. In 1996, Congress passed the Food Quality Protection Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) Amendments requiring US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to screen pesticide chemicals for their potential to produce effects similar to those produced by the hormones humans and giving EPA the authority to screen certain other chemicals for endocrine effects.
Since that time, the EPA has been screening a select list of chemicals for the potential to interact with the endocrine system through the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP). On this call Dr. James Cowles of the EPA’s Environmental Fate and Effects Division presented information on the current status of screening, including the anticipated release of preliminary results. Dr. David Dix of the EPA’s Office of Science Coordination and Policy Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention explored future directions in screening for endocrine disruption.
Featured Speakers
James Cowles, PhD, is the Associate Director of the Environmental Fate and Effects Division (EFED) in the Office of Pesticide Programs at the US EPA. EFED is responsible for conducting ecological risk assessments in support of pesticide registrations in the Office of Pesticide Programs. Dr. Cowles is responsible for overseeing the ecological effects portion of the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program in OPP and has over 18 years’ experience working on ecological risk assessments for pesticide registration. Prior to joining EPA, Dr. Cowles was a senior science and policy advisor to the Director of Agriculture in Washington State on natural resource and environmental issues. Dr. Cowles earned a BS in Environmental Studies at Western Washington University, and a PhD in Environmental Toxicology at Clemson University.
David J. Dix, PhD, is the Director of the Office of Science Coordination and Policy Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Preventionat the US EPA. Dr. Dix was previously the Acting Director of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s National Center for Computational Toxicology (NCCT), at Research Triangle Park, NC, where he led the development of high throughput decision support tools for screening and assessing chemical exposure, hazard and risk. Prior to Acting Director, Dr. Dix was the NCCT Deputy Director and a Research Biologist conducting research in reproductive, genomic and computational toxicology at EPA. He earned his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a PhD in Physiology from Rush University in Chicago, and completed postdoctoral training at the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. He has published over 100 articles, reviews, reports and book chapters, serves on several Editorial Boards, and has given numerous national and international presentations on EPA research.
The call was moderated by Karin Russ, National Coordinator of the CHE Fertility and Reproductive Health Working Group.
