Emerging Contaminants and Issues of Concern Research Program

National Institute Of Environmental Health Sciences

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The goal of the ECIC research program is to provide high-quality data and knowledge to stakeholders in a timely manner to address contemporary public health issues. A secondary outcome of this program is the identification of testing approaches that do not currently have regulatory acceptance but may be of value for filling data gaps on chemicals with limited toxicological information and strategies for tackling rapid response problems. Emerging contaminant exposures or health conditions are typically highly visible issues that may be affected by outside factors (i.e., political, legal, and societal). While there are challenges in addressing time-sensitive issues of concern, there are also rewards: benefits to public health, the advancement of science, and expansion of collaborations. Our work in the last year has focused on: 1. Building a stakeholder network and strategies. In addition to connecting with stakeholders of interest by virtual zoom meetings, particularly those stakeholders that may have a vested interest in proactively identifying emerging contaminants or public health issues of concern, we have built inter-agency and inter-divisional relationships on the topics of disaster response (DR2) and drinking water contaminants (National Emerging Contaminants Research Initiative or NECRI). Both of these focus areas have already been impacted by climate change and we have begun efforts with DR2 to develop sample collection protocols for GeneTox assays and rapid systematic reviews. As part of the NIEHS effort, the ECIC PMT provided input and reviewed the final NECRI documents which were recently published to the public by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP; 08/08/22). Members of the ECIC PMT currently attend the bi-monthly inter-agency research coordinating meeting with the OSTP/NECRI leadership. In addition to giving talks on the ECIC Program and providing feedback at NTP sister agency workshops, the ECIC team has developed and had accepted a Society of Toxicology 2023 workshop entitled "Scanning the environmental horizon: Developing strategies to proactively identify and address tomorrows emerging issues". The ECIC team sponsored the January 2022 DNTP Forum to have a discussion with the NC Dept of Environmental Quality and NC Dept of Health and Human Services on PFAS research gaps and the current state of PFAS regulation in NC. 2. Management of our ECIC project portfolio. Our ECIC project portfolio existed prior to our team, so in FY22 we spent time to understand who managed the projects, what their timelines to publication/completion were, and how we could help them. The research leads have completed several projects, especially regarding emerging drinking water contaminants that may exist in areas of environmental health disparities or affect susceptible subpopulations, such as pregnant women and children. The ECIC research program published work demonstrating excretion of and exposure to vanadium following perinatal drinking water exposure to vanadyl sulfate and sodium metavanadate in rats and characterized the short-term toxicity of vanadium in drinking water in rats and mice. The NTP Developmental and Reproductive Toxicity (DART) Report-07 was published on 2-((1-(4-Phenoxyphenoxy)propan-2-yl)oxy)pyridine (MPEP), a pesticide used to control a variety of insects, following prenatal exposure in rats and rabbits to characterize maternal and fetal toxicity. Tungsten, a natural environmental contaminant in drinking water and a high-production volume compound that is used in a variety of commercial applications, was nominated by the CDC to the NTP for health effects evaluation. Toxicology and carcinogenesis studies of sodium tungstate dihydrate in rats and mice were published in NTP Technical report-599 in 2021. Finally, a series of studies on sulfolane, a solvent used in the petrochemical industry and a groundwater contaminant in areas near refineries, have been published. Following the earlier work on disposition and metabolism of sulfolane in mice and rats, work in FY22 reported the 28-d toxicity studies in three species following oral exposures, and the immunotoxicity outcomes in developmentally-exposed rats and in adult-exposed mice. 3. Development of new projects. The ECIC research program has reviewed and facilitated approval of a project evaluating the chemical exposome in cord blood of infants and their mothers in three different regions of NC to address the questions of existing environmental health disparities in some communities. The work began recently, and products are expected in FY23. We have also reviewed concepts for the evaluation of azo dyes, often found in children's clothing and other colored materials, that are suspected of having a link to some cancers.