How Are Chemical Harm Risks Established After an Industrial Spill?
CU Anschutz News
May 2, 2023
Lisa Bero, PhD, Chief Scientist at CBH and Research Professor at the the Colorado School of Public Health, recently led a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee to improve processes that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses to identify harm posed to humans and the environment following industrial chemical spills. “Harm is something that I think gets conflated with safety,” said Bero.
“Established levels for a chemical’s harm don’t necessarily mean that if you’re slightly outside that level, it’s safe. And it further depends on the data as well, which is always limited. For example, liver toxicity studies are often done acutely – high levels of exposure in a short period of time – rather than at lower levels over an extended period," Bero said. Read article>>