Announcing SETAC Europe and ISES joint Special Session to be held in conjunction with SETAC Europe Annual Meeting
15-19 May, 2011
Milan, Italy
“Emerging Exposure Science for developing Chemical Regulatory Policy
: REACh, Biocides, TSCA reform”
The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) and the International Society of Exposure Science (ISES) invite you participate in a Special Joint Session to be held on Wednesday 18 th and Thursday 19 th May (1.5 days) at the SETAC
Europe Annual Meeting in the Milan International Convention Centre (MIC). This Special Session will address advancements in environmental, consumer and occupational exposure science required to meet the demands of a changing global regulatory landscape.
This forum facilitates exchange of ideas from the environmental and human health exposure sciences highlighting assessment methods and tools that improve regulatory decision-making. It will draw upon experiences with existing environmental, consumer and occupational exposure methods including those developed within Europe, the USA and
Canada and introduce emerging topics that are expected to shape the future of exposure science for decision-making. With invited presentations by international experts from these scientific areas and regulatory agencies the forum will provide a view of emerging trends and explore practical applications for practitioners and decision-makers in the context of regulatory mandates such as REACh, EU Biocides Directive, TSCA and CEPA.
The expected outcome is to foster better communication and promote consistent, integrated approaches among scientists and regulatory decision-makers in addressing source/receptor links to assess impacts of chemicals on human health, ambient environments, and ecological receptors. Poster presentations addressing associated topics are encouraged.
SESSION ONE: Chemical Regulatory Policy: Ensuring we have the exposure science capacity for sound decision-making
Chair : Christine Norman (Health Canada)
Under the UNEP Strategic Approach for International Chemicals Management, of which SETAC is a key stakeholder, jurisdictions internationally have committed to addressing legacy chemicals globally by 2020. The session will speak to the scope of this broad chemicals management policy objective and will identify key exposure science challenges facing regulators and the regulated community moving forward.
This session will open with an overview of key chemical management regulatory frameworks in place including those under the legislative mandates of REACh, EU Biocides Directive, TSCA and CEPA. The focus will be on what these laws demand of exposure science, from both a human health and ecological perspective, and on the identification of potential opportunities/barriers for sharing tools, data and assessments across jurisdictions. Lessons learned from conducting exposure and risk assessments of priority substances under Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan, with an emphasis on opportunities for greater collaboration moving forward, will inform the discussion. A panel session will then identify key challenges facing regulators that need to be addressed in order to ‘get it right’ moving forward with chemicals management activities. These issues will inform technical discussion in subsequent sessions.
SESSION TWO: Emission and exposure characterization of environmental, consumer and occupational health
Chairs: Tim Kedwards ( S C Johnson, UK) & Oliver Price (Unilever, UK)
Chemical regulatory frameworks across the globe differ in how they assess potential human and environmental risks associated with chemicals in commerce. Exposure models enable decision-makers to assess the potential risks associated with the use of chemicals to the environment, consumers and workers. Chemical properties in combination with an understanding of how they are used, released and transported determine chemical concentrations in environmental and biological media. The purpose of this Session is to bring together currently disparate technical disciplines drawing out commonalities and differences between current exposure modelling approaches for use in environmental, consumer, and occupational risk assessments.
The Session will be structured to first provide an overview of the current approaches and tools available in different technical areas across geographical regions for characterizing exposure and risk from chemicals. Integrating themes for exposure assessments will be explored; key regulatory developments will be highlighted, and future challenges facing exposure scientists from academia, industry and regulatory agencies will be identified..

SESSION THREE: Advances in Exposure-Science Research and Technology: Expanding the Integration Among Multiple
Disciplines
Chair: Tom McKone (University of California, USA)
The essence of exposure science is the study of the co-occurrence of a stressor and a receptor. Exposure science provides the spatial/temporal narrative about the intensity (concentration) of a stressor at the boundary between two systems—one functioning as an “environment” and one functioning as a target (receptor). Exposure science explains and describes these processes with respect to an outcome (harm). In this approach there are multiple levels of organization—from the global environment down through ecosystems, communities, indoor spaces, populations, organisms, tissues, and cells. The exposure narrative informs research, policy, and regulation. This session will bring together exposure scientists working in diverse efforts such as exposure biology, landscape regression, environmental chemistry, and pharmacokinetics to explain how their ongoing research is impacting the exposure narrative across a broad range of receptor/stressor sets. Speakers will help us better understand the basic elements of an exposure science and how it can serve to address challenges with regard to measurements, conceptual models, data, computer models, and uncertainty.
Poster Session: Integrating the Sciences and Development of Methods, Approaches and Tools to Meet Emerging Exposure
Needs in Chemical Regulation
Chair: Christina Cowan-Ellsberry (CE² Consulting, USA)
Abstracts for posters to be included as part of the forum are invited. Also, posters within the SETAC session will be tagged
(with their author’s permission) to note special interest to this forum’s topic.
Registration
Registration for the SETAC Europe 21 st Annual Meeting, including the Special Session, will open during January 2011.
Sponsorship Opportunities
If your organisation is seeking either to promote its expertise in relation to the theme of the Special Session or to demonstrate support for SETAC and ISES, then there is an opportunity for you to sponsor this session as part of the SETAC
Europe annual meeting. Further details will be posted on the Milan meeting website.
Special Session Steering Committee
The session programme is being managed by a steering committee comprising members of both SETAC and ISES as shown below.
International Society of Exposure Science: ISES Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry: SETAC
Europe
Christine Chaisson (The LifeLine Group, USA, co-chair)
Christine Norman (Health Canada)
Christina Cowan-Ellsberry (CE² Consulting, USA)
Thomas McKone (University of California, USA)
Yuri Bruinen de Bruin (RIVM, Expertise Centre for
Substances, NL)
Tina Bahadori (American Chemistry Council)
Tim Kedwards (S C Johnson, UK, co-chair)
Oliver Price (Unilever, UK)
Katrien Arijs (SETAC EU)
Dave Arnold (SETAC EU)