Citation:

Darney, S. AND E. Faustman. Lifecourse Models for Ensuring Children's Health Protection. Presented at Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting 2013, March 10 - 14, 2013.

Impact/Purpose:

This workshop brings together the interdisciplinary expertise needed to begin integrating new knowledge into lifecourse models for children’s health and wellbeing. Topics include research findings from toxicity testing and epidemiology studies specific to critical windows of exposure during pre-conception, pregnancy and early childhood life stages to stimulate discussion on the broad challenge of optimizing testing and risk assessment models and enabling analyses across the whole lifecourse.

Description:

New knowledge about environmental risks to human reproduction and development directly relevant to children’s health protection derives from the fields of developmental and reproductive toxicology, exposure science, epidemiology, risk assessment, and public health. Together, this information highlights the importance of the intrauterine environment in setting the stage for lifelong health, along with the complexities of the physical, chemical and social factors that operate during critical windows of development to impact health and wellbeing. For example, breakthroughs in genetic polymorphisms and epigenetics are extending our understanding of inherent and acquired susceptibility to effects of environmental contaminants and showing how various intrauterine stressors such as nutrition, toxicants, and social stress may alter developmental programming at the start and throughout life. These scientific advances point to the need for innovative cumulative risk assessment methods and public health intervention approaches in order to account for risks that accrue across the developmental continuum from cradle to cradle. This workshop brings together the interdisciplinary expertise needed to begin integrating new knowledge into lifecourse models for children’s health and wellbeing. Topics include research findings from toxicity testing and epidemiology studies specific to critical windows of exposure during pre-conception, pregnancy and early childhood life stages to stimulate discussion on the broad challenge of optimizing testing and risk assessment models and enabling analyses across the whole lifecourse. The workshop also features an innovative approach for evaluating and communicating complex scientific information about reproductive risks and interventions to diverse audiences including health providers, parents (future and present), and regulators. This abstract does not reflect EPA policy

Record Details: