2007 Forums
Nov 19, 2007
Dietary Exposure Assessment at the Food and Drug Administration: A comparison of exposure assessment methods used in the Total Diet Study and analyses of individual food products
Dr. Michael DiNovi and Katie Egan
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
10:00 – 11:30 am
World Agriculture Outlook Board Conference
Room 4433 South Agriculture Building
For over forty years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has conducted the Total Diet Study to monitor levels of pesticide residues, chemical contaminants, metals, radionuclides and other substances in food. The results of this monitoring program are used to estimate dietary exposure to these substances by the U.S. population. The FDA also collects samples of individual foods, outside of the Total Diet Study sampling protocol, in response to emerging food safety issues. Two recent efforts to sample individual foods addressed acrylamide and perchlorate levels in certain types of foods. Results from individual food samples are also used to estimate dietary exposure.
This Risk Forum will compare and contrast the dietary exposure techniques used by the FDA for the Total Diet Study with the exposure assessment techniques used with individual food sampling. The role of food recipes and food consumption surveys, such as the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII) and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), in the dietary assessment will be discussed. The use of probabilistic models in dietary exposure assessments, such as the Environ Dietary Exposure Assessment (EDEA,) will also be addressed. Finally, interpretation of the results of these two different dietary exposure assessments will be examined.
Nov. 13, 2007
Are interdisciplinary approaches of any use to economists and risk
assessors?
A survey of recent interdisciplinary research efforts at the National
Science Foundation
Dr. Robert OConnor
National Science Foundation
Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Come explore the use of interdisciplinary approaches to increase the
understanding and effectiveness of decision making by individuals,
groups, organizations, and society and explore whether interdisciplinary
approaches are of use to economists or risk assessors. Dr. O'Connor will
describe research funded by the Decision, Risk and Management Sciences
program and by special interdisciplinary competitions at the National
Science Foundation, as well as discuss future applications of
interdisciplinary approaches for solving problems that involve risk.
Oct 16, 2007 Spring Valley Public Health Scoping Study
Legacy of US WWI Chemical Weapons Research: Case-Study of Environmental Epidemiology, Risk and Community Health Assessment in Washington, DC
Chemical warfare research, testing, and disposal were conducted during and immediately after World War I on the American University Campus and surrounding areas now known as the Spring Valley neighborhood of Washington, DC. In 1993, a contractor unearthed buried military ordnance. Subsequent investigations revealed disposal pits containing laboratory materials; chemical weapons agent and degradates; and surface soil with elevated arsenic concentrations. Remediation of soil arsenic is underway and exposure and health investigations have been conducted.
Community health concerns remain. An environmental health scoping study was conducted to: (1) Describe community health in Spring Valley; (2) Identify health risks of past and present activities; (3) Identify gaps in the existing health and environmental information; and (4) Recommend studies to fill remaining gaps. Results of the analysis comprising community health and risk assessments, and spatial analysis of exposure and health outcomes will be presented.
