On November 13, 2012, EPA held a meeting in Arlington Virginia to hear the views of the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Program from the public and interested stakeholders about changes that are underway to improve the IRIS Program.
Committed to proactively engaging stakeholders, EPA is increasing transparency, and using the best available science to develop these assessments. This public meeting was the beginning of an ongoing dialogue about IRIS with open public participation. Environmental protection decisions, based in part on EPA's IRIS assessments, can have potentially large impacts on the environment, human health and the economy. Because of this, it is important that EPA benefit from stakeholder and scientific engagement to support the best decisions possible.
EPA Presenters
Kenneth Olden, Ph.D., Sc.D., L.H.D.
Former Director, of the National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) (within US EPA/Office of Research and Development) which was renamed the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment (CPHEA)
EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System Program
Kenneth Olden came to EPA from July 2012 - July 2016 with a strong legacy of promoting scientific excellence in environmental health. From 1991-2005, he served as the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Most recently, Dr. Olden served as the Founding Dean of the School of Public Health at the Hunter College, City University of New York. He has published extensively, chaired numerous national and international meetings, and has been an invited speaker at more than 200 symposia.
Dr. Olden received a B.S in Biology from Knoxville College, a M.S. in Genetics from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology and Biochemistry from Temple University.
Vincent Cogliano, Ph.D.
Former Director, IRIS Program (within NCEA)
Recent Improvements in IRIS
Vincent Cogliano has over 20 years of EPA experience and has served as Acting Director of the IRIS Program since November 2010. Previously, he served as head of the International Agency for Research on Cancer's Monographs Program in Lyon, France. The Monographs are a series of scientific reviews that identify environmental factors that can increase the risk of human cancer.
Dr. Cogliano holds a B.S. in Mathematics from the Catholic University of America, a M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Cornell University. Professional interests include qualitative and quantitative health risk assessment and its application to the protection of public health.
Invited Panelists
Mary Fox, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Management Department, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
IRIS for Environmental Public Health
Mary Fox is Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management and Co-Director of the Risk Sciences and Public Policy Institute at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research is focused on quantitative human health risk assessment as a part of environmental policy making, particularly approaches to cumulative and chemical mixtures risk assessment.
Dr. Fox holds a B.S. in Biology from the State University of New York at Albany, a M.P.H. in Environmental Studies from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and a Ph.D. in Environmental and Occupational Health Policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
David B. Fischer, M.P.H., J.D.
Senior Director, American Chemistry Council (ACC)
IRIS Public Stakeholder Meeting
David B. Fischer has been with ACC for nearly 15 years and from 2000-2003 was Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law.
Mr. Fischer received a B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Northwestern University, a M.P.H. from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, and a J.D., with honors, from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he focused on environmental law. Mr. Fischer is also a patent attorney.
Gloria Post, Ph.D., D.A.B.T.
Research Scientist, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP)
State Perspectives
Gloria Post has been a Research Scientist in NJDEP's Office of Science since 1986. She is a toxicologist with responsibility for human health risk assessment of environmental contaminants. She serves on the Exposure and Human Health Committee of the EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB) and served on the EPA SAB Trichloroethylene Review Panel. She is a member of the New Jersey Drinking Water Quality Institute, a legislatively mandated advisory body to NJDEP, as well as the Federal-State Toxicology and Risk Assessment Committee (FSTRAC), an organization of state and federal scientists responsible for human health assessment of water contaminants. She is a member of the Society of Toxicology and currently serves as Secretary of the Mid-Atlantic Regional chapter of SOT (MASOT) and on several of its committees. She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Environmental Science and Health (Part C) and is a reviewer for eight other journals.
Dr. Post holds an A.B. with honors in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Thomas Jefferson University.
Richard Denison, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
EDF Comments for EPA
Richard Denison has 28 years of experience in the environmental arena, specializing in chemicals policy and hazard, exposure, risk assessment and management for industrial chemicals and nanomaterials. He serves on the National Research Council (NRC)'s Standing Committee on Use of Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions and was recently a member of its Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He is a member of the Green Ribbon Science Panel for California's Green Chemistry Initiative and is also a member of the NRC's Committee to Develop a Research Strategy for Environmental, Health and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials.
Dr. Denison holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. He joined EDF in 1987, after several years at the U.S. Congress' Office of Technology Assessment.
Chuck Elkins, J.D.
President, Chuck Elkins and Associates
Panel Presentation
Chuck Elkins is President of Chuck Elkins & Associates, an environmental consulting firm that provides advice and counsel to companies and trade associations who have chemicals of interest involved in the IRIS program, and Co-Chair of the IRIS Forum, a periodic informal gathering of industry stakeholders who have an interest in the IRIS program. After serving as the Deputy Director of the Committee in the Executive Office of the President that created EPA in 1970, Mr. Elkins worked for EPA for 25 years in various senior positions. In his spare time, he is the co-founder and Executive Director of the EPA Alumni Association.
Mr. Elkins is a member of the Washington, DC Bar and holds a B.A and law degree from Yale University.
Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., A.T.S.
Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and National Toxicology Program (NTP)
Linda Birnbaum has served as the Director of NIEHS and NTP since March 2009. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and at Duke University. She has served as a federal scientist for over 30 years and is the author of more than 700 published works.
Dr. Birnbaum earned a B.S. in Biology at the University of Rochester. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she received a M.S. in Microbiology and a Ph.D. in Microbiology.
Download Presentations:
You may need a PDF reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA’s About PDF page to learn more.- EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System Program (PDF)(8 pp, 504 K)
- Recent Improvements in IRIS (PDF)(8 pp, 269 K)
- IRIS for Environmental Public Health (PDF)(9 pp, 172 K)
- IRIS Public Stakeholder Meeting (PDF)(8 pp, 383 K)
- State Perspectives (PDF)(4 pp, 109 K)
- EDF Comments for EPA (PDF)(4 pp, 438 K)
- Panel Presentation (PDF)(9 pp, 248 K)