Prenatal and postnatal development and reproductive health have long been a focus of government, industry, and academic communities. This interest has increased in recent years as the influence of the environment on reproductive health and development of the embryo, fetus, and child has become more evident. Medications, chemicals, smoking, drugs, and alcohol have all been associated with male and female infertility.
Recognition of environmental effects on prenatal and postnatal development has led to legislative measures such as The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) and amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted a number of programs and alliances to address environmental impacts on childhood development. Recent concern about consumer safety of toys and baby bottles emphasizes the importance of specialized expertise in developmental and reproductive toxicology in assessing the health risks associated with different exposure levels. A recent National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) panel listed a number of high/medium priority chemicals for reproductive health studies, including: dibutyl phthalate, boric acid, N,N-dimethylformamide, acrylamide, bisphenol A, and ethylene glycol.
Exponent’s developmental and reproductive toxicologists and epidemiologists bring extensive experience that spans the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, academia, and government, working on projects at the state, national, and international levels. Our team of scientists has considerable regulatory experience as senior scientists/directors at the EPA and the UK Pesticides Safety Directorate, and as members of national and international expert committees. They have been involved in developing regulatory guidelines for reproductive and developmental toxicity testing and risk assessment, developmental neurotoxicology, endocrine disruption, cancer risk assessment as it relates to children, and quantitative risk assessment.
Exponent scientists have practical experience in planning, conducting and coordinating regulatory guideline-based toxicity studies and investigative human studies. This includes interpreting study data relative to children’s health and developmental and reproductive toxicity for standard-setting and risk/safety assessment, screening assays for endocrine disruptors, quantitative benchmark dose analysis and risk assessment, and conducting and interpreting gene-environment interaction studies of environmental exposures and genetic susceptibility in human fetuses and infants.
Using an integrated approach, our team of scientists advises clients on issues such as product testing and registration, data and literature analysis of potential children’s health issues, product stewardship, and litigation. Studies necessary for any given regulatory authority may have implications in other parts of the world (e.g., classification and labeling restrictions; acute reference dose; FQPA factors). Exponent’s international team of scientists offers an array of services to help navigate these issues, from interpretation and advice to directing programs and risk management proposals. Exponent is unique in that we can bring to bear powerful multi-disciplinary expertise in industrial hygiene, epidemiology, toxicology, and risk assessment on solving scientific problems in developmental and reproductive toxicology and human health risk assessment.