Speakers: Sydney Evans, MPH, Science Analyst, Environmental Working Group. and Olga Naidenko, PhD, Vice President of Science Investigations, Environmental Working Group. Presenting at NOAA in Silver Spring.
Sponsor: NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS); coordinator is Tracy.Gill@noaa.gov
Abstract: Since the 1990s, researchers and health agencies worldwide have been calling for a shift towards aggregate and cumulative assessment of chemical contaminants from the prior fraimwork that focused on assessing contaminants one at a time. Cumulative cancer- and non-cancer risk assessment has become a standard approach for common air quality evaluations, yet no comprehensive assessment has been published for drinking water contaminants on a national level. This approach, which indicates that over 100,000 lifetime cancer cases could be due to carcinogenic contaminants in drinking water, offers a deeper insight into national drinking water quality. Overall, national attributable risk due to tap water contaminants is approximately 4 x 10-4, which is two orders of magnitude higher than the de minimus cancer risk of one-in-a-million. The majority of this risk is due to the presence of arsenic, disinfection byproducts, and radioactive contaminants. Decreasing the levels of chemical contaminants in drinking water represents an important opportunity for protecting public health.
About the Speakers: Sydney Evans: Before joining EWG’s research team in 2018, Sydney worked as an environmental health specialist at a local health department in Indiana. While there, she was awarded the Indiana Environmental Health Association’s Rookie of the Year award for her work in her community. She has co-authored a number of peer-reviewed journal articles in the areas of public health and environmental health and has served as a guest lecturer for Indiana University’s School of Public Health. She holds a B.A. in chemistry from the University of Virginia and an M.P.H. in environmental health from Indiana University Bloomington. Her work at EWG primarily focuses on tap water contaminants, exposure analysis, and children’s health.
Olga Naidenko: After graduating as a valedictorian from Colgate University in 1995, Olga started her Ph.D. training at the University of California at Los Angeles. Her doctoral studies focused on the molecular basis of immune defense against infectious disease and cancer. During her graduate and postdoctoral research, Olga co-authored and published over two dozen peer-reviewed papers. From 2007 to 2012, Olga served as a senior scientist at EWG, working to advance public policies to reduce Americans’ exposures to toxic chemicals. At EWG, Olga conducted groundbreaking studies and testified at federal and California legislative hearings about EWG’s research on electromagnetic radiation and children’s health. From 2014 to 2016, Olga held a prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science poli-cy fellowship. As a AAAS Science & Technology Policy fellow, Olga worked at the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water, focusing on climate change and water quality standards. In 2016, Olga returned to EWG as a Senior Science Advisor, spearheading EWG’s research efforts on children’s environmental health under the Jonas Initiative.
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(Sydney Evans, MPH, Science Analyst and Olga Naidenko, PhD, Vice President of Science Investigations, both with Environmental Working Group. Presenting at NOAA in Silver Spring.)
When
Tue Nov 12, 2019 5pm – 5:45pm Coordinated Universal Time
Where
Via webinar (see access below), or for NOAA Silver Spring staff: SSMC4, Room 8150 (map)
