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The article focuses on how the toxicity testing reform for U.S. chemicals laws fits into the legal and policy landscape. It informs that the U.S. federal system that controls the use of chemicals consist of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and their regulations. It mentions that many evolutionary changes in toxicology provide for regulatory revolution for evaluating chemical hazards for chemicals.

In 2007, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council (NRC), issued the report Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy. This report, which was commissioned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), called for the U.S. EPA to develop a new approach for how this agency evaluates the toxicity of compounds. The report recommended that the agency move from its current testing system, which is based largely on traditional toxicology, to a testing system that is based primarily on human cell lines and in vitro systems. Successful implementation of the report's vision and strategy will require that scientists, lawyers, and policymakers work together to bridge the gap among disciplines. An important step in building this bridge requires an analysis of the U.S. legal system that frames toxicity testing. If the U.S. laws, regulations, and policies erect barriers that would prevent or impede the U.S. EPA adoption of the NRC vision and strategy, it is important to identify these challenges. At the same time, if existing laws, regulations, and policies are fertile ground for these recommendations, opportunities should be documented. This article discusses and evaluates the challenges and opportunities that arise under key provisions of one major U.S. toxics law, the Toxics Substances Control Act (TSCA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a research program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy which aims to gain a better understanding of how low-dose radiation affects cellular functioning. Three implementation challenges are discussed including one that involves explaining low-dose effects in a systems biology model, another that arises when issues of population susceptibility are juxtaposed against molecular and mechanistic studies, and another one that concerns integrating the results of radiation epidemiology.

Focuses on the practical application of biomonitoring to regulate toxic chemicals in Mississippi. Measurement of the chemicals and metabolites in human specimens; Relationship between chemical and disease; Appropriations of public health decisions and regulations.

Focuses on the teaching of public health law in law schools in the U.S. Course description; Issues in injury control; Discussion of public health program management in a managed care legal framework.

Focuses on the role of non-governmental organizations in the development, implementation, and reform of public health laws in the U.S. Protection of the health of the public in the public health system's emergency preparedness; Strategies for the implementation of public health laws; Means of preventing birth defects.

The past 50 y have seen substantial developments in radiation epidemiology, technology, dosimetry, regulations, and protection efforts. During the last five decades, radiation communication has also evolved, growing more sophisticated as communication science and practice have advanced and matured. This talk covers the trends in radiation protection over the past 50 y, illustrated by progress in science and practice of risk communication and changes in societal expectations, and examines challenges that will confront radiation risk communication in the future.

This paper is focused on summarizing the "lessons learned" from discussions at the 2010 NCRP Annual Meeting on effective communications on the subject of radiation benefits and risks in public exposures. Five main lessons learned are discussed in regard to effective methods of public communication: the use of new social media communication tools such as Facebook and Twitter, emergency situations that require rapid societal and personal messaging, medical radiological procedures where benefits must be described in comparison to long-term health risks of radiation exposures, and information that should be provided to stakeholders in situations such as environmental radionuclide contamination to which members of the public may be exposed. It is concluded that effective communications in which radiation benefits are contrasted with health risks of exposure are an important aspect of making and implementing decisions on employing radiation health protection procedures.

The Toxic Substances Control Act is the principal US law governing industrial chemicals. Over the past three and one half decades, it has become clear that a considerable toxicological information gap exists about chemicals in commerce. The current provisions of the US TSCA law have failed to fill, and perhaps even exacerbated, that gap. For at least the past 5 years, bills have been introduced before the US Congress to reauthorize TSCA.Filling the toxicological information gap has been one of the driving forces for this call for substantial change. This article describes efforts to modernize TSCA, with an emphasis on the new provisions that would be put into place if the legislation became law. The article shows that only by implementing a "replacement-first" strategy - a strategy that is not currently incorporated into TSCA reauthorization efforts - can TSCA modernization efforts potentially fill the toxic data voids.