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Risk Analysis: 25 years of the SRA and a perspective on the fieldBy and Mercury, Myths, and Children’s Environmental Health By Wednesday, January 11, 2006 4:30-5:00 PM Social gathering, light snacks
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Risk Analysis: 25 years of the SRA and a perspective on the fieldDr. Kimberly Thompson, Summary: This talk will provide a historical review of the first 25 years of the Society for Risk Analysis, highlighting the accomplishments and challenges. The talk will then provide some perspective on the present and future of risk analysis as a field and lead into a group discussion. Biography: Kimberly Thompson is currently Associate Professor of Risk Analysis and Decision Science at the Harvard School of Public Health where she created and directs the Kids Risk Project. She is currently a visiting Associate Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management and the President-Elect of the Society for Risk Analysis. Her research interests and teaching focus on the issues related to developing and applying quantitative methods for risk assessment and risk management, and consideration of the implications associated with including uncertainty, variability, and time in risk characterization. Drawing on a diverse background, she seeks to effectively integrate technological, social, political, legal, and economic issues into analyses that improve decisions. Mercury, Myths, and Children’s Environmental Health Dr. Gail Charnley Summary: In 2005 the US Environmental Protection Agency promulgated the first regulations ever to control mercury emissions from coal-fired electric power plants. The Clean Air Mercury Rule is being challenged by several states and environmental advocacy organizations on the basis that it violates the Clean Air Act. The social rationale for the challenge is that it does not reduce mercury emissions far enough or fast enough and, as a result, emissions pose an unacceptable methylmercury risk to children. In addition, there is an argument that EPA’s “cap-and-trade” approach to restricting emissions would create methylmercury “hot spots”—concentrated areas of contamination and risk near older, dirtier power plants—in contrast to the technology-based regulatory approach that environmental advocates prefer. While there is no doubt that higher levels of methylmercury can damage the developing nervous system, there is a debate about the extent to which methylmercury poses a risk to children at US environmental levels. Methylmercury exposure occurs as a result of eating fish and many fish advisories have been put in place warning pregnant women and children away from fish caught in certain areas. An unintended consequence of the debate is that many people are choosing to reduce or eliminate fish consumption altogether as a means of reducing their methylmercury risks, thereby losing the well established developmental and cardiovascular benefits of eating fish. Meanwhile, there is strong evidence that reducing power plant mercury emissions in most of the US will have little impact on methylmercury exposure and risk. This presentation will examine the association between power plant mercury emissions, methylmercury contamination of fish, and children’s health. Biography: Dr. Gail Charnley is an internationally recognized scientist specializing in environmental health risk assessment and risk management science and policy. She has over 20 years of experience in the biological, chemical, and social policy aspects of environmental and public health protection, writing and speaking extensively on issues related to the roles of science and democracy in environmental and public health decision-making. Dr. Charnley focuses on the strategic risk management of complex scientific issues related to, for example, the design and implementation of regulatory programs in the United States and Europe, and on promoting a role for science and analysis in regulatory agendas worldwide. She currently serves on a National Academy of Sciences committee convened to improve the regulation of low-level nuclear waste disposal and another committee charged with developing a long-range vision for toxicity testing and health risk assessment at EPA. She has also served on and chaired several US Army Science Advisory Board committees that evaluated science- and technology-based policies and practices in the Army. She is an adjunct faculty member in the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for Risk Analysis and has chaired or served on numerous peer review panels convened by the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and Health and Welfare Canada. From 1994-1997 she was executive director of the Presidential/Congressional Commission on Risk Assessment and Risk Management, mandated by Congress to evaluate the roles that risk assessment and risk management play in federal regulatory programs. Before her appointment to the Commission, she served as director of the Toxicology and Risk Assessment Program at the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council, where she also served as the project director for several Academy committees convened to evaluate and make recommendations concerning science-based public policy matters. She lectures frequently on science policy issues and is the author of numerous reports evaluating the toxicity of chemical exposures, environmentally related impacts on public health, the management of risks to health and the environment, children’s environmental health, and democratic science-based public policy and decision-making. She is a fellow and a past president of the international Society for Risk Analysis, for which she has also served as councilor, Sigma Xi distinguished lecturer, advisory board vice-chair, and public policy committee chair. She holds an AB in biochemistry from Wellesley College and a PhD in toxicology from MIT. |
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