Risk Assessment for Human Metal Exposures

Dr Gunnar F. Nordberg, MD, PhD, is an emeritus Professor at Umea University, Umea, Sweden, where he served as chairman of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine for many years. He has also worked as a Professor and chair at the Department of Environmental Medicine, Odense University, Denmark and for periods of a year at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France and the University of North Carolina and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NC, USA. In his capacity as university professor, he tutored many PhD and master students in Environmental medicine, a number of them from countries around the world. He has published more than 300 papers in Scientific Journals and International Handbooks. In addition, he authored, edited or co-edited 24 Scientific Books and participated in International Task Groups evaluating Risks of Environmental Agents, which resulted in 30 international books or reports. Some of these publications resulted from his activities as a chairman of the Scientific Committee on the Toxicology of Metals, International Commission on Occupational Health. He is presently the Task Group Chairman of Cadmium Risk Assessment in the Toxicology and Risk Assessment Group of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. His Scientific Publications are mainly on Toxicology and Epidemiology of environmental agents, particularly metals and the application of such data for Human Risk Assessment. He has coordinated EU- projects on Environmental Epidemiology and Toxicology of Metals and participated as an active scientist in several such projects. He has been the principal investigator of many research projects funded by Swedish funding Agencies and is presently actively involved in such research. He is one of the editors of a Textbook in Swedish “Arbets- och Miljömedicin”, latest 4th edition 2019. Chief Editor, Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals, 5th Ed, published 2021 by Academic Press/Elsevier. He has extensive experience as an expert serving Swedish and International Authorities, such as the Swedish National Board of Health (Socialstyrelsen), Japan Food Safety Agency, US Environmental Protection Agency, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) USA, World Health Organization HQ, Geneva/International Program on Chemical Safety/WHO Commission on Health and the Environment, Energy Panel; International Agency for Research on Cancer IARC, Lyon, France, Europe/European Environment Agency, Copenhagen; European Medicines Agency, London; European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, Italy. Dr. Fowler began his scientific career at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences prior to becoming Director of the University of Maryland System-wide Program in Toxicology and Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He then served as Associate Director for Science in the Division of Toxicology and Environmental Medicine at Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). He is currently a private consultant and Co-owner of Toxicology Risk Assessment Consulting Services (TRACS), LLC. In addition, Dr. Fowler serves as an Adjunct Professor, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health and Presidents Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) at the University of Alaska- Fairbanks. Dr. Fowler, is an internationally recognized expert on the toxicology of metals and has served on a number of State, National and International Committees in his areas of expertise. These include the Maryland Governor’s Council on Toxic Substances (Chair), various National Academy of Sciences / National Research Council Committees, including the 1993 landmark NAS/NRC Report on “Measuring Lead Exposure in Infants Children and Other Sensitive Populations” for which he served as the Committee Chair. He has also served on a number of review committees of the National Institutes of Health, the USEPA Science Advisory Board and the Fulbright Scholarship review committee for Scandinavia (Chair, 2000-2001). In 2016, he became an Inaugural Member of the Fulbright 1946 Society and in 2018 became a member of the Fulbright Association Board of Directors. He has also served as a temporary advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) and on working groups of the International Agency for Research Against Cancer (IARC) for a number of toxicology and risk assessment issues. He is presently appointed as a member of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) for the period 2016-2020. Dr. Fowler has been honored as a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), a Fulbright Scholar and Swedish Medical Research Council Visiting Professor at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden and elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences. His more recent awards include a CDC/ATSDR, Honor Award for Excellence in Leadership Award 2010, The US Pharmacopea (USP) Toxicology Committee 2010-2015 and the USP Elemental Impurities Panel which received the 2014 U.S. Pharmacopea Award for an Innovative Response to Public Health Challenges (Group Award). He is currently appointed to the USP Nanotechnology Subcommittee 2015-. Dr. Fowler was previously elected to the Council of the Society of Toxicology (2005-2007), the Board of Directors of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (2006-2009), and more recently, to the Council of the Society for Risk Analysis (2014-2017). He is the Federal Legislative and National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association and (NARFE)-PAC Chair for the Rockville Maryland Chapter of NARFE and is currently Chair of the Federal Legislative Committee for the Maryland NARFE Federation. Dr. Fowler is the Past- President of the Rotary Club of North Bethesda, Maryland (2016-2017) and was selected as Rotarian of the Year in 2015 for his work in developing a taxi-based program to help persons with disabilities gain independence via reliable transportation to work. Dr. Fowler is the author of over 260 research papers and book chapters dealing with molecular mechanisms of metal toxicity, molecular biomarkers for early detection of metal-induced cell injury and application of computational toxicology for risk assessment. He has been the editor, co-editor or author of 10 books or monographs on metal toxicology and mechanisms of chemical – induced cell injury, molecular biomarkers and risk assessment and computational toxicology. Dr. Fowler is currently focused on the global problem of electronic waste (e-waste) in developing countries. He serves on the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals in toxicology and is an Associate Editor of the journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology and a past Associate Editor of Environmental Health Perspectives (2007-2016).

1. Metal Exposures and Human Health – Historical development, Current Importance and Toxicological Concepts for Prevention2. Exposure, Internal Dose and Toxicokinetics (TK).3. Biomonitoring, Mode of Action (MOA), Target Dose and Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs)4. Hazard Identification and Assessment5. Dose-Effect and Dose-Response Assessment6. Dose-Response for Essential Metals and the Evaluation of Mixed Exposures7. Applied Risk Assessment, Hazard Assessment and Risk Management8. Examples of Risk Assessments of Human Metal Exposures and the need for MOA TKTD